The Green Party said the Government's decision to bypass local authorities on certain planning applications and to go straight to An Bord Pleanala is wrong.

The Party made the announcement following the publication of the Govt's Action Plan for Housing.

Cllr David Healy, of Fingal County Council said local authority planning decisions are already governed by strict time limits and there are thousands of outstanding planning permissions for residential units, and enough zoned land for tens of thousands more.

Mr Healy said: "The Government missed an opportunity to put an end to speculative land hoarding, as we see in certain areas of the country, through the introduction of a Site Value Tax.

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"We also have concerns about the proposal for new tax credits for first time buyers. What we saw before was an increase in demand and house prices on the back of such a credit – we don't want a repeat of that."

Green Party Spokesperson on Environment, Cllr Malcolm Noonan said: "We do have a number of concerns, however. Firstly, there is still an over-reliance on the private rented sector and private developers to provide social housing, and we need to see local authorities and the state play a bigger role. There was also an opportunity to strengthen tenancy rights and security of tenure for those in the private rented sector, which was missed.

"It is disappointing that the opportunity to use private and semi-state pension funds to contribute to financing housing has not been addressed. Rental housing has the potential to provide a stable source of income for such funds."

(CD/MH)