Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am open to persuasion on this but I cannot get my head around it. The levy would be applied by, and paid to, the local authority, so it would have to go through a regime to do that. Local authorities do not have huge independent means for the development of these sites. Could the Minister of State envisage a situation in which the local authority is forced to develop one particular site in a county, as opposed to in a location where there is a greater housing need? If that is the case, I am not sure how forcing its hand in that way is a good idea. It may well also force local authorities to sell on sites at less than the potential market value at a better time. I can see problems with it.