Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I return to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan's point. I ask the Minister to specifically clarify it in his reply because the Deputy made a statement of what he believed to be in the Bill and then a conclusion. His belief is that when land is transferred to a private owner that it will then be sold for open-market sale or for speculation and so on. It is very clear in this Bill that regardless of who owns the land there is an obligation to build affordable housing on it. Thus if anything, it is the exact opposite of what Deputy Boyd Barrett and Deputy Cian O'Callaghan have said. I ask the Minister to clarify, because it is important for the record of the committee, that the purpose of the Bill is to assign the obligation to have affordability on it, rather than allowing a mechanism to make it unaffordable. It is not a correct for Deputy Cian O'Callaghan to conclude that the Bill will allow land to be sold and then for it to be on the open market to be developed and speculated on. He is leaving out the most important obligation in the Bill, namely, the permanent obligation, regardless of who owns the land, that only affordable housing may be built on it. It is really important. I do not think the Deputy made the point disingenuously, but it is an important thing to clarify that the obligation is permanently assigned to the land regardless of ownership.