Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The housing situation is now affecting the economy. It is affecting the expansion capacity of our FDI. Companies cannot get the people because they cannot guarantee they will get a place to live. When we go back and look at it we see that if we keep just nibbling at it instead of deciding to do something a bit more drastic we will end up in a situation where these companies will regress and they will do their expansions in Malaysia or someplace else. Most of these global companies are competing with other sites of their own and not with another global company. It is a worry that we could very quickly see a decrease in FDI here if we do not get our act together.

Dr. McQuinn spoke about the Land Development Agency. We know what the problems are. I certainly think the State needs to step in a lot more quickly to try to get the private sector going so we can have houses that people can purchase at a reasonable price. The credit for developers is absolutely out the window. Local authorities looking for cash bonds is another problem. The biggest issue is planning. There is the cost of planning as well as the uncertainty of what people will get at the end of the day. I like the idea of having just a local area plan. This is what the Cathaoirleach was speaking about when he said we should have local area plans in which we decide what should go where and do all of the due diligence. It would save a lot if we could just move ahead with them then.