Ms Maria Graham:

I will make a couple of points and add to what Mr. Coleman said. I welcome and understand Deputy Ó Broin's support of the concept of and need for active land management. The countercyclical piece was touched on. I might add to Mr. Coleman's explanation and say that many of our commercial companies had sufficient credit ratings to borrow in 2009 when the State was not able to. Unfortunately, we know the impact of those hard times. The companies were able to continue their investment programmes when the State did not have that capacity.

The Deputy asked about engagement with the European Commission. In drafting the legislation, there was an iterative process of developing the operational model through the prism of different elements of EU law, including those that the Deputy touched on - the transfer of land and the structuring of various functions. We need to be ready to show the Commission a formed idea of the CPO powers. We want them to be as strong as possible while also compliant. That is the balancing act that is required. The draft Bill will take account of all of the discussions. Some technical reports, including benchmarking, and the business plan also need to be done. We are nearly there, but we would not find it fruitful to approach the Commission so early in the iterative process that we needed to come back because, for example, we were now thinking of putting the affordable housing component on a statutory footing.

The Deputy touched on the two different components. That is why we have structured the Bill in this way. He correctly pointed to the economic and non-economic functions. We believe that we can do both within the organisation. We are developing an organisation that will have certain capabilities to perform its core function, that is, active land management. We should spin off that centre of excellence to give support, as required, to local authorities and other agencies. It is a matter for us to define this clearly within the draft legislation so that the terms of the two elements are quite clear. One is not in state aid territory and the other has to demonstrate that it is compliant.

This relates to the discussion on affordable housing. It is a complementary and new add-on to the suite of affordable housing activities. It is not substituting for local authorities, but will instead be available to local authorities if they wish to use the centre of excellence to support them in their role. It will not supplant the affordable housing activity that they should engage in as housing authorities. The quantum of affordable housing coming through other streams should be enhanced by this. Local authorities do not have to use the LDA. It is a question of choice. If the State develops an agency with those kinds of capability, it is important that it be used as a shared service to deliver benefits. From the LDA's perspective, this fits into the overall affordable housing policy, which is a matter for the Department.