Mr. John Coleman:

There are two ways to look at the LDA. We have been given a mandate to access State lands and we have a duty to deliver. Clearly, there are significant housing and affordability needs. We have a mandate to deliver and open up State lands, so I think it is our duty to deliver on the State lands in the short term. One of the original long-term concepts behind the LDA was as a strategic land manager. A perfect example is the Colbert Station area of Limerick, which is right in the city centre. We are supposed to increase the scale of Limerick city by 50% from now to 2040. How do we do that? Where is the housing going to go? Do we continue to sprawl or do we build up what we have within the city? The State owns the 50 ha site in the Colbert area. The HSE is interested in providing health services, CIÉ is interested in provided transport services and Limerick City and County Council is interested in providing housing. I believe the opportunity can be much bigger if all of those lands are joined as part of a longer-term vision. If the cities are going to develop over the next 20 years, cohesive thinking, rather than a piecemeal approach, needs to be brought to bear. We must utilise any State land that we have to work out that we are going to put our people mainly in more densified situations than the less sustainable sprawl we have suffered from. That sprawl will continue unless we have significant policy movements against it. That will lead to all of the undesirable effects around environmental issues, etc., that we do not want any more. One of the few positive by-products of the past year has been our realisation that we waste so much time commuting. We are trying to tackle those issues over the long term. In the short term, the LDA wants social and affordable housing delivery. In the long term, the LDA wants strategic land management in places like the Colbert area of Limerick. Those are the two things we are trying to do, and that is what is contemplated by the larger number of 13,000 home opportunities.