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

In another life I worked with Mr. Cussen and found him very helpful. He is very intuitive in terms of the political needs of one's constituency. I say that respectfully.

This is a huge debate. I welcome the Minister's publication yesterday of an itemised list of housing supports, changes and improvements that are coming on stream. It certainly outlines what is happening in County Louth. However, it is only a drop in the ocean. It is not the answer, but it is part of the answer.

I know this is for a different day. I challenge the strategy on this major fundamental point. In the city of Dublin 36,000 homes will lie vacant tonight. We should tax any non-principal private residence if it is vacant for a year or more and if there is no issue regarding probate. We have plenty of incentives for them to come on the market. We cannot afford to have huge resources like that unused when there are families who need them. I know that is not on the agenda today, but it is very important.

In my constituency there is land owned by State agencies. For example, the Department of Defence owns 200 acres of land in Gormanstown. It is time to call in the Departments to give us their analysis of land that could be used for housing. We need to call in CIE, Bord na Móna and some of the biggest agencies to discuss the land they have that could be used and what needs to change to make it available. There are huge resources in land that the State owns but is not necessarily owned by individual Departments. We need to get that land on stream with public private partnerships for fixed-cost builds. We should offer, for example, 50 acres of land and service it if the price of the house is under a certain amount. Notwithstanding all the good work that has been done, we need to do more.