Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I never got to make a comment on amendment No. 44 and will do so now, briefly. It refers to the issue of the LDA engaging in commercial activities, which is a slippery slope in our view. This is where private finance and commercial priorities start to dictate the LDA's agenda, and affordability and the social objectives of the agency start to go out the window. That is the logic behind it. At every level, this Bill is opening the door to commercial logic and to private finance. We are concerned about what that will do to affordability and the other social objectives that should drive the development of the land bank.

On amendment No. 227, I would like to hear the Minister's note before I comment but broadly speaking, this is focused on the public land bank. This is about opening up the public land bank to the LDA rather than doing what it should be doing, which is dealing with the impact of what private investment and the search for profit has done to the private land bank and the private housing sector.