Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the chief executives and to echo the comments of all members in acknowledging the enormous work that they do, along with their teams, in what is a very difficult time. I also point out that I am particularly glad to see Ms Egan and Mr. Burns, both of whom would have been in Dun Laoghaire when I was there. Ms Farrelly has clearly taken a lot of talent from there because I know she has other staff from my former council working with her as well. I hope that is assisting her in rolling out and delivering the exemplary targets that were mentioned earlier.

I want to raise two or three issues and to deal with Fingal first. It is a unique, very exciting and dynamic council. I acknowledge that on a range of fronts, particularly in housing. It also has enormous potential and undeveloped land. There are demographics peculiar to Fingal as opposed to the other three Dublin local authorities. There is clearly potential. Ms Farrelly, in engagement with her elected members in the process of a county development plan, flagged the lack of suitably zoned lands in Fingal ownership to enable future construction programmes. That is within the ownership of Fingal post-2026. We are now in 2022. That is an alarming issue, and one I presume there is a strategy in place to deal with, and I would like to hear that. There is also a lack of suitably zoned land available for sale in Fingal. We know that and Ms Farrelly pointed it out. She also said that Fingal was a housing authority and a planning authority, which is. The council has its eye on all aspects of land transactions. However, I would like her to touch on that and tell us what the plan is and how she will navigate that challenge.