Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the role of the LDA, I did not read into the legislation what our guests have read into it. Unless the LDA has a function in acquiring land for future use, it will not serve its purpose. One of its primary objectives is to stockpile land for future use. I have an issue with State land being sold to the LDA at market value. Whether it is HSE or CIÉ land, the State bought it originally and I do not know why it should pay market value on the land to be given to the LDA. If we continue to use the term "market value", affordability will never be delivered.

On the point about on and off-balance sheet - and I recognise that the Irish Council for Social Housing is here today - what happens if the Land Development Agency is proven to be on balance sheet tomorrow morning? Nobody can tell me whether it is guaranteed to be off-balance sheet tomorrow. It all depends on the capital and the control of local authorities over who gets into housing, as our guest have said. Tomorrow morning, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, or EUROSTAT, could say the model is wrong and the agency should be on-balance sheet. What impact would that have?

On the topic of land ownership and leasing arrangements, I lease my own business back to the State for a penny a year for 200 years, if demanded. I have no freehold but I am allowed do whatever I want on it, whether that is to develop it, expand it or apply for planning permission. Is that the type of model we might be looking at for residential properties? If it is, there are already examples of it in Ireland.