Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Any land we are dealing with here is already zoned for housing anyway. I am not sure if I completely subscribe to the Minister of State's belief there is no need for additional land to come onto the market. While there may be land with planning permission, the problem is it is not going onto the market. We need some of this land to flow to people willing to develop it for housing purposes. The land about which we are speaking has been zoned for housing purposes. My point is the Minister of State is simply wrong on this matter. If he does not believe the land needs to come onto the market why are we getting rid of the windfall tax? These people benefited from local authorities rezoning land. The land should come onto the market, which is why the windfall tax should be reduced, but the Minister of State does not seem to want the land to come onto the market now, next month or the month after. He speaks about incentives and a consultation process which will be launched sometime in the future to incentivise people to release land and develop it. This is a very simple measure. I do not understand the Government's rationale for not including a Cinderella clause. We will agree to differ. I believe the Minister of State is making a mistake.