Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has provided that the site must be situated in an area where there is a need for housing. I made the point in the Chamber that land banking is one of the biggest problems in the industry, and we need to deal with it. There are too many provisions in the Bill that allow developers to get out of this. If someone has bought land for development and deems that there is no need for housing there at the time, I would point to the two categories we have in Ireland - namely, land banking and shadow land banking - and this one falls into the shadow land banking category. It is land that did not cost as much as land that we would regard as being part of a land bank, and that will sell for a lower price, but fellows are hoarding it until, they estimate, the time comes when there is a need for housing on that land. The Government should be catching those land hoarders in the net as well, even though the land might not be suitable for development currently. There might not be a need for housing there right now, but the developer or investor bought it for a good reason. That is what shadow land banking is. All sites bought for development need to be caught in the Minister's site levy.