Mr. John Coleman:

The Deputy's questions are very apt. Ms Graham's point that 0% of those lands is seeing any housing in the absence of this sort of an intervention was well made. Increasing the supply of private housing is not necessarily a bad thing. There is a private housing supply issue in the market, as members know, particularly in respect of rental, which is becoming more difficult in all forms. It is not a bad thing.

In terms of the Deputy's points around the balance sheet treatment, Ms Graham referred to the question of what we want the LDA to do, and the Deputy's response was that it should build houses. Absolutely. However, we want it to do many other things. We want it ultimately to open up and release land for the construction of housing as well, which is very important. When we look at the capital intensity of what we are going to do, direct construction is the area that sucks up the most capital. However, another very important aspect of the LDA is something that is not quite as capital intensive, namely, agitating where there is State land that could be used for better purposes to present cases to Government to ensure that it happens and is scrutinised appropriately, and also to facilitate the unlocking of land elsewhere that might adjoin public sector land, particularly but not exclusively. It is not just the direct building of houses that the LDA is about; it is about more than that.