Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending and for the briefing note they sent to the committee.

I am in favour of a vehicle such as the LDA for delivering social and affordable housing, particularly in respect of non-local authority sites. We all know sites owned by organisations such as the Prison Service or the Office of Public Works, OPW, which can be difficult to get to, so an organisation like the LDA could be most useful in that respect. However, the Land Development Agency Bill 2021 contains significant shortfalls that we must work on to address, but that is not why we are here today. We are here to discuss the affordable housing Bill 2020.

First, I wish to ask a few questions, some of which might require only short answers, and some that might require talking through. Could I get an indication from the witnesses of other sites on which the LDA is seeking to deliver cost rental, and if they have any indication of the number of units of cost rental they anticipate delivering over the next five years?

I also want to ask about the engagement with local authorities and the proposal in the Land Development Agency Bill that the decision on the disposal of local authority sites would be removed from local councillors. Is that something the LDA lobbied for or welcomes?

How long does the LDA anticipate the development of sites taking? We saw criticism from the Dublin City Council assistant CEO a few weeks ago on how long it takes local authorities to get sites together in comparison with the private sector. How does the LDA anticipate it will improve on those timelines?

I would also like to return to the point made by Mr. Coleman. I checked through the Bill and it is not entirely clear. Does he anticipate the LDA will be the special purpose vehicle, SPV, that is taking the equity stake in the shared equity scheme under the affordable housing Bill? He made the point as a bit of an aside, so I just want to clarify that. If that is the case, how is the LDA working in potential negative equity coming into that shared equity from the LDA side of things? That could very much undermine the funding model of the LDA, so perhaps Mr. Coleman could speak to that a little bit more.