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

A number of points have been made. We had a clear example there of some of the best in sound bite politics and misrepresentations of the real situation. That is just a fact. Throwing out phrases like "dirty little secret" and that type of stuff is not correct, at the end of the day. I reiterate that where local authorities have decided to dispose of land, they, like other bodies, including commercial bodies, must give first refusal to the LDA before selling to the market. It is only in these circumstances that section 183 of the Local Government Act would not apply as it is moving land from one public body to another. Deputy McAuliffe's point is absolute. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan may want to clarify what he said but the reality of it is we have already seen, very recently, schemes that have been funded by my Department, through the serviced sites fund, voted down by the Deputy's party, the Social Democrats, and voted by down by Sinn Féin, Deputies Ó Broin and Paul Donnelly's party. That is the proof of the pudding. That is 1,200 homes gone. Of those, 238 were to be social, 238 affordable and 150 cost-rental. They are all gone.

People will have to make up their minds as to whether they really want unproductively used State-owned lands to remain in that condition with State bodies sitting on them. I do not want that, and neither does the Government. The Bill will ensure that it does not happen. Saying that this measure would be a mechanism to sell off public land to investment funds, developers, speculators and so on - I am quoting - is a sound bite that might play well with some elements of the media and keep people disaffected, but we are concerned with delivering solutions. Parties are opposing these mechanisms. They actually opposed the LDA building any homes at all. Deputies Ó Broin and O'Callaghan went even further and opposed the LDA even planning to build for houses by saying they did not want the master plan. Let us get real.

I will consider Report Stage amendments to see whether there can be further changes in this regard, but I firmly believe that we must get on with building affordable and social homes on State-owned lands. I will table amendments to increase the affordable ratio on those lands further. I put it to the Deputies who argue against it to set out what they will do. Will they vote against homes for working people being built on State-owned lands as their parties have done in respect of council-owned lands?

We all want the State to use its land appropriately and to deliver social and affordable housing. Some Deputies are not crazy about affordable housing and do not believe in real homeownership, but this Government does. We want to give people a chance to own their own homes at an affordable rate and we have voted accordingly for it. That is why definitions of "affordability" are contained in the Affordable Housing Bill, which is a Bill I hope the Members opposite will support.

I will conclude on my next point because I know time is short, but some serious charges have been made about what the LDA will do. Deputies Ó Broin, O'Callaghan and Boyd Barrett, people for whom I have personal regard, know better than that. They do not believe what they are saying, nor should they because they are misrepresenting the facts. I will not accept their amendments.

I thank my Government colleagues in respect of amendments Nos. 188 and 189. I will revert to aspects of the matters raised on Report Stage.