Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of the Land Development Agency Bill 2019: Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and Land Development Agency

Photo of Pat CaseyPat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is probably the single most important legislation we are going to pass this term. It needs scrutiny. I do not think we are going to run out of time today but I am sure we will be back again another time. Deputy Ó Broin mentioned something I would like to return to regarding the off-balance sheet proposal. I have a certain concern around that. To achieve off-balance sheet status, from what I am hearing, we would need to have 60% private or commercial activity on the State side. That means out of the 150,000 houses proposed over the 20 years, only 60,000 will be social and affordable. The rest will be private. If this Land Development Agency ends up on-balance sheet, does it collapse? Has it failed in its purpose or can it deliver if it is on-balance sheet? We are trying to look at an agency that is going to be set up and that realistically has to be determined to be off-balance sheet for it to succeed. We cannot answer that question today. I do not know at what stage we will be able to answer it. It is a concern.

During the previous debates on this issue, it was the total debt of the approved housing bodies that was put on-balance sheet, that is, historical debt, private debt and public debt. Every single piece of debt went on-balance sheet because of that decision. If the same happens to the Land Development Agency, it will not be able to deliver on its targets. A key fundamental of this is the off-balance sheet model. I am just trying to get to the nub of it. If we fail in this, the Land Development Agency will have failed and will not be able to serve its function. There are other things but I think we will just evolve them over time. On that single point alone, that if the Land Development Agency turns out to be on-balance sheet it will not be able to fulfil the function it has been set, what is Ms Graham's view?

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