Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of quick questions. I would like to return to Mr. O'Connor's point about the Land Development Agency providing master plans and servicing sites. My question relates to Ms Hegarty's comment. Local authorities already do that. We have just agreed a very substantial strategic development zone for Clonburris. Local authorities have a huge amount of skill and expertise. Adamstown, also in my constituency, is a good example of that. The value of those processes is that they have some democratic input and some public consultation and engagement. Not only did the LDA lack any of these skills when it was set up, thereby being obliged to acquire them, it lacks the statutory requirement to engage with elected representatives or members of the public. I still do not see what added value the LDA provides that we could not have got from better-resourced local authorities, including master planning and site servicing.

Moreover, because we are spending a lot of time talking about residential development and all the associated difficulties, we are not talking about active land management as much as we should. With reference to Mr. Dunne's point, the Government is making two claims about this agency in its conversations with us. The first was already mentioned; this agency will take Donnybrook bus garage from the CIÉ or vacant lands in Cork from the HSE and will use them for something better. However, the Government also talks about other active land management functions. We are not getting proper sight of that. If people have models of best practice, perhaps they could share them with the committee.

Partly because he sits on the board of the LDA, I am interested in Mr. O'Connor's response to Ms Hegarty's point about affordability being delivered by cost rather than by market discount. The published figures for O'Devaney Gardens really show the risk of applying the market discount. We are told that two-bedroom apartments and three-bedroom houses will retail for approximately €310,000. That is at a discount of 35%. That means that Bartra Capital has priced those units in at €477,000 before knocking off a discount of 20%. The State then steps in and cross-subsidises a further discount through its equity share. While the house will be sold at €310,000, Bartra Capital will be paid €370,000. If the affordable purchaser ever buys out that equity, he or she will essentially have paid €340,000, €350,000 or €360,000 for the house.

That can be compared to the cost model, which I know Mr. O'Connor strongly advocates and which Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance and others have delivered. This would deliver exactly the same house or apartment for €250,000. Given these figures, how can we ensure that the LDA delivers affordable units on the basis of the economic cost of delivery, rather than large companies' inflated market tenders at a discount? Given the heads of the Bill, I fear the price will be the market value minus the discount, rather than the cost. This will not merely fail to guarantee affordability; affordability will not be available at all.