Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Okay, but the housing crisis indicates otherwise. I will move on.

I am in favour of and have argued for having a centrally planned agency, although the local authorities should be the main source of housing delivery. Co-ordinating that delivery in a strategic is the right way to go. However, I have a problem with the fact that within this plan 60% of housing will be privatised. This will create huge problems. Once the State interacts with the private market we will be back to the problem we have with NAMA, in that it will have to negotiate with people whose interest in the process will be to make money. The State will have to negotiate with them an arrangement, whereby they will make money from land that it is giving to them. Mr. Coleman has mentioned that this land will be serviced. The agency is trying to drive down the cost of the land, which means that they will get it on the cheap and then walk away with a profit. They will not get involved if they will not make a profit.

As Deputy Fergus O'Dowd mentioned, It causes a range of difficulties, including the question of transparency and whether we will be able to find out the price at which land is disposed of. The answer is that probably we will not. Perhaps the Land Development Agency deputation might tell me. When it disposes of land public land to private developers, will we know the prices? Will we be able to know the conditionality surrounding the sale of land in the context of housing delivery?