Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to know how much zoned land is within the grasp of the public sector or local authorities, how much of it has planning permission, how much of it is serviced and how much of it is what I would call shovel-ready for tenders. Is that information available across counties? Has it been collated by the Department?

I have a number of other questions. Local authorities would have had land and would have serviced sites which they would then have made available to individuals to build houses. Is that an option? Would such a plan speed up the process?

On the issue of voids, one problem we have is estate management. I have seen good and bad examples, and voids develop fairly quickly where there is not good estate management. Do the witnesses have any proposals or suggestions on how to improve it? It is a resource issue, but it pays for itself in the long term.

Are the witnesses concerned about the fact that private property developers are buying up land, especially in the greater Dublin area? One particular builder has bought in excess of 20% of the land and his company is raising money on the London Stock Exchange to buy land here on, I presume, the basis that it will wait for greater scarcity and for land values to increase. Do the witnesses have any suggestions on how we, as legislators, can curtail such practice?