Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not mine. I would like to put a question. Much of the focus is on the cities but we cannot forget rural areas. Have the officials put forward proposals to buy land for local authorities that do not have land? Has the land of State bodies such as CIE, which has huge landbanks, been considered? This land could clearly be used for social and affordable housing and even for private housing.

We can all start preaching and practising but the local authorities have been starved of money in recent years. The four CCMA representatives read out exactly what I would find on their website regarding what they tell local authority representatives. We are legislators and we need them to tell us what they would like us to do to speed up the process. We are the people who have to make the decisions. We can all come in here and criticise one another but we are here together as a group trying to find a solution to a difficult problem. Will the local authority officials give us an indication of what they would like us to do to speed up the process? We would appreciate it.