Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am coming back in because the Minister did not answer my question. I am trying to understand why the Minister thinks it is a good idea for the scarce resource of public land to be used to build and sell homes that will be priced between €350,000 and €450,000. I accept that there is a shift in this Bill from the original Fine Gael proposition, which was that, on average, 60% of all the homes delivered through the LDA would be unaffordable full market price sales. The Minister is right in saying that he has introduced a series of measures to change that, but I cannot understand why he would allow any homes to be sold. Taking the Dundrum Central site as an example, there will be some level of private build there, but the median market price for a two bedroom apartment in that location is currently over €500,000. In that regard, the Government is using public land to build homes at an exceptionally high price. Why is that a good idea? If the Minister wants us to withdraw our amendments he needs to convince us that is a good idea. There are already homes being developed for €500,000 for the people who can afford to buy them. Homes costing €230,000, €250,000 and €260,000 are desperately needed. Therefore, I cannot understand the rationale of 10%, 25% or 50% of a site being used for unaffordable open market price sales.