Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Could I intercede for a second? If there is serviced site outside a provincial town with road frontage and correct zoning, is Mr. McCarthy telling me it is cheaper for the local authority to simply ignore that serviced, zoned site and try to find properties to buy within that provincial town for the provision of social housing?

The point I make is that surely it should be doing both. It is not as if there is a lack of money. What I see in this example is a lack of will to do that. We have serviced sites with power, drainage and accessibility. If they do not have accessibility, that is what LIHAF is for, even if it is only a case of providing €100,000 for a few hundred yards of roadway. If the Department has lots of money, which clearly it does, I am trying to understand why local authorities are not hitting their targets and why they are not developing sites that they may own and that are zoned appropriately and serviced or purchasing properties in their areas. I am just trying to understand what is the issue.