Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett may have missed my earlier contribution in which I said we will be aligning this Bill with the Affordable Housing Bill. Both are significant Bills. They were introduced by the Government within a year of its establishment. The Land Development Agency Bill was in gestation for years but we have changed it and brought it forward. It will have a genuine impact on delivering affordable and social homes on State agency land. The Affordable Housing Bill is related but it is in addition. It relates not only to affordable homes on public land but also to the provision of affordable housing on private lands. Again, I would have expected Deputy Boyd Barrett to have welcomed that. When we get to Part 9 of this Bill, we will be dealing with aligning the Affordable Housing Bill with the Land Development Agency Bill.

The differences in price caps, which are not targets, reflect the fact that there are different house prices in different parts of the country. There are regional price caps because one size does not fit all in the Irish housing market. In parts of the country, no private homes have been built in ten years. The only homes that are being built are public homes. Including throughout the midlands and north-west, there are large swathes of the country with a viability problem. It will not be fixed in just one Bill.

The Bill, along with the Affordable Housing Bill, which will be proceeding to Committee Stage in the Seanad, contains real measures to help real people to own their own homes or, indeed, rent their own homes with State-backed cost rental. That is what we are talking about. Let us not get into conspiracy theories on this. The Affordable Housing Bill is genuine legislation that is related to the Land Development Agency Bill. I envisage the latter delivering affordable, social and cost rental housing at scale. We cannot do that unless the agency is set up on foot of primary legislation. In this way, we can capitalise the agency to the tune of €1.25 billion. This is Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, money. I do not know whether Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett or others are opposed to that capitalisation. It will allow the agency to borrow a further €1.25 billion, thereby being capitalised initially with €2.5 billion to deliver social and affordable homes at scale on State-owned lands that have been sitting idle for far too long. I could get into more detail.