Mr. John Coleman:

-----through the Land Development Agency Bill, obviously that is a matter for the Government in respect of the Land Development Agency Bill. However, I would again make the point we should look at the emphasis being given to services to local authorities in the Land Development Agency Bill. We are here to help local authorities to get delivery happening on their lands, where we can. Regardless of what is in the Land Development Agency Bill, we see ourselves as working very much in partnership with the local authorities and elected members, doing whatever we can to help them get sites developed. We see ourselves very much in the guise of a service provider. That could be providing finance, technical project management services, and so on. Regardless of what is in the Bill, we see ourselves very much as working in collaboration with the local authorities and the elected members.

On the Senator's first point concerning other sites we are looking for that could deliver cost rental, we continually look for further opportunities. The statement I issued showed members the initial sites. As I alluded to in response to Deputy O'Callaghan, while we have ideas about what we might expect on those sites, we simply do not know the exact percentage. On the enactment of the Land Development Agency Bill we will need to engage with the Government on that, but clearly we are very focused on affordable housing delivery in particular, as well as social. In respect of other sites on which we might develop cost rental, there are around 3,000 additional homes worth of sites.

One thing we are doing through the Land Development Agency Bill is that, within 12 months of the enactment of this section of the Bill, we will report to the Government on our view of the development potential for State land. The Government will take that and make a decision as to what should be made available to the LDA, or some other agency perhaps, but we would hope it would be the LDA, to be developed especially for housing. We would anticipate that will unlock a good deal more State land that could be added to the portfolio. I am sorry I cannot be more exact, but I hope it gives the Senator a flavour of our trajectory on this issue.