John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a very important point to have on the record.

To go back to the approved housing bodies, the Housing Alliance, in its submission and in a number of answers to questions, referred to access to low-cost land. This will probably be perceived as a criticism but I have to cite an example. I will not reference the location in the country nor the people involved but it is a general point on inflating land costs. In one example, which is not in my county, a developer was bidding on a particular site and the cost was working out at roughly €27,000 per unit for the site. An AHB came along and bid €35,000 per unit for the site. The developer would say he could not make the site viable at anything above €27,000 per unit. His point is that AHBs have bigger pockets to draw on. What the AHB sector has done in that location is set a new floor below which no piece of land in that area will be sold. Will Mr. Taaffe comment on that?