Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In many respects, there are already houses in Dublin which are empty. Is there any proposal in the legislation to deal with the 36,000 homes in Dublin which are vacant? There are 1,000 families living in hotel accommodation. It is very important that it be included in the legislation - it is the recommendation of the Housing Agency - that the Department have a policy on the management of local authority homes which are empty. If 1,000 of the 36,000 homes in Dublin which are empty could be brought back onto the market, it would make a significant difference. Do the delegates have a view on this?

I accept and acknowledge the importance of fast-tracking planning permission, but my difficulty is that land which has already been zoned in the greater Dublin area is not being built on. Extending the period of planning permission for this land when it is capable of being developed now does not make sense. Perhaps I have a different view from that of others sitting at the table, but I am concerned that a significant number of players who exploited the last boom will exploit the housing crisis by holding onto and not building on land on which they have planning permission to build. I am very cautious about extending planning permissions without very good cause. However, I have no problem with fast-tracking planning applications, as proposed. It is a very important proposal.

I do not see it in the legislation and do not know whether it is included, but, whatever view we hold on the first-time buyer's grant, a very simple way to assist first-time purchasers is through the use of local authority land banks. Local authorities have a lot of land. I do not have the data to hand, but I know that they possess thousands of acres of land throughout the country which is suitable for development, but they do not have the funds to do so. Would it be germane to the Bill to provide an opportunity for local authorities which have identified land suitable for social housing to enter into public private partnerships to develop it? Such houses could be sold at a very reasonable cost because the land is already owned by the State. If local authorities were to enter into a public private partnership with a developer, the price of land could be controlled and we would get houses at a basic cost in central areas in towns and cities. This is an important issue which needs to be addressed.