Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a few questions on the land legacy loans that the Minister has provided €100 million for. In my time on Cork City Council, that was a big issue for us. Cork City Council had built up substantial debts. They had purchased properties before the financial crash. For years, they were only paying interest on these land debts and then they had to pay capital. The issue here is if one writes off these loans where local authorities have built affordable houses on those lands, will they be able to revalue down the cost of these homes? Affordable homes are much more expensive in Cork than in most areas nationally and the reason for that is they have these land loans. If Cork City Council can draw down these land loans, can it then reduce the price of its affordable housing to make it affordable because at present the affordable houses of Cork are not affordable?