Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 June 2021

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed)

Photo of Cian O'CallaghanCian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On Deputy Pringle's amendment No. 93, the Minister's response was that there is a requirement for ministerial consent for homes to be sold on. While that is better than not having a ministerial safeguard, it is not a safeguard in terms of investment funds. It is the case that the Minister has been a strong backer of several projects of housing being built on public lands where the sites have been sold on to private developers and where we know the housing will end up in the hands of investment funds.

The Minister has been a very strong backer of those projects. I would not have very much reassurance there. We need a strong legislative measure to prohibit the LDA selling public lands or homes built on public lands to investment funds. Without that, given everything that has happened to date and given the Minister's very strong backing for projects where this is in effect what is in the pipeline, I would have serious concerns.

The Government is certainly not the biggest builder. It is a very large purchaser of housing. The Vice Chairman has made the point previously that given amount of money being allocated to purchasing housing through different schemes, the State is not driving down prices and improving affordability as it should be. That is a cost for the State but it is also a cost for wider society through increases in rents and the prices of homes. That is what is at the heart of our concerns on this. We have a model of selling public lands to large developers who already have large land banks in order that they can develop out housing schemes slowly over a ten-year period. When we have a housing crisis now and need fast delivery of affordable homes now and not over a ten-year period, that is not something the Minister should be trumpeting. I am concerned about the direction of the Land Development Agency under the provisions of this Bill.

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