Mr. John Coleman:

I thank the Deputy. I hope he can hear me. I have changed the connection, so it is hopefully a bit more stable.

On the 150,000, we have to think of the LDA in two ways. It was never expected or intended that the LDA was going to directly develop 7,500 units per annum every year for 20 years. The current largest housing provider in the country delivers around 1,000 homes per year and one of the largest public limited companies, plcs, in the UK probably delivers in or around 10,000. It just goes to show that was not the intention.

Where the 150,000 came from, and there is a clue in what we are doing in the Cork docklands and Limerick Colbert developments. These are strategic areas where a line can be drawn around them and we can say that a vision and implementation plan needs to be put in place for these areas. If that is done properly, by enabling infrastructure, bringing together landowners, developing plans and master planning cohesively rather than piecemeal, utilising SDZ-like structures, it is where the big impact of the LDA will be over the long term. They take a long time to invoke, but we have to start somewhere and we have to start today. The Deputy will recognise the need for active and strategic land management. That is a key part of it.

If we go further and ask what that means, on Limerick Colbert we prepared a vision piece. We are very close to being able to release a master plan and we will, as part of that master plan, work with our partners there to have an implementation plan to get delivery going on that. It will be more than developing housing on that site, although housing will be a key component. It will be about attracting occupiers-employers, people to provide jobs and to provide the wider social and economic regeneration in these areas.

As regards Cork docklands, we are working with Cork City Council to put together an implementation plan for the very large Cork docks area. Only pockets of that land are State land. We will have to work with other landowners in that area to bring about a vision to realise the potential for 10,000 homes to be delivered on time in that area. They will not all be directly delivered by the LDA. Others will come in and develop those sites. Many of them are privately held, albeit there is a significant slab of State land right in the middle with the old ESB marina power station. Our role in that situation is to create a vision, co-ordinate landowners, including the State landowners, to put together a plan to bring in occupiers, to bring confidence and employment and to make it a real, proper live-work proposition we can market with the likes of the IDA and other bodies to be a reality.

That is the 150,000 piece and the strategic land management piece that will enable all these areas. If one thinks about the example of Limerick Colbert, that was not on anyone's radar 18 months ago. It now looks like a properly managed, strategic area right in Limerick city centre that could be transformational for the city. That is the effect of the value we can bring in the long run. We are only a little over two and a half years in existence, but that gives a good clue as to where the scale, referred to by the Deputy, will be achieved and potentially delivered given our limited financing.