Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would just like to ask for clarification on a particular issue. On 9 March, Mr. McCarthy spoke to this committee on Pillar 3, regarding active land management planning reforms. I am aware that every local authority has been written to about their landbanks. My biggest issue is that I have gone through this with local authorities and we have, through the Department, developed a spatial strategy, which is based on our population. We have dezoned. We have constantly been dezoning land in recent years. We are now in a time of need and crisis and there is so much dezoned land. I asked the Minister about this and he was not aware of it. I have gone through it with the local authorities. We were told by the Department to pick a particular area, to start from inside that area and dezone what was outside it, which we did. We started with the population inside and then we dezoned anything outside the boundary. What is the Department actually going to do about these dezoned lands? Some of the land in question belongs to local authorities, some to builders or farmers. What will the Department do about this because, and as previous speakers have said, it is crucial? I know that the Department has written to the different local authorities seeking information. What is the plan going forward in this regard?