Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)

Following on from previous questioners, in terms of the Land Development Agency and the issue of moderately constrained land and the potential of 56,000 homes, the timeframe Mr. Coleman has set out feels very long given the context of the crisis we are in. I again ask the question: what can be done to speed that up and bring that land on board? In particular, he said the land report relates to towns with a population of 10,000 and greater. How much public land is there outside of that in those smaller towns that might also have potential? In particular, on the question of moderately constrained land, what can be done to speed that up?

Second, and very briefly, the question of public construction capacity is something I have spoken to Mr. Coleman before about and it is something we need to look at to address the skills capacity issue. Do Mr. Coleman and the Housing Agency see potential in the State developing public construction capacity where it would hire a number of builders and build capacity and building skills itself to deliver construction, even if it was delivering 1,000 or 2,000 units per year?

Finally, the proposal we put forward was called the homes for Ireland state savings scheme. I know the Housing Agency has not looked at this but does it intend to look at that ability to leverage the €160 billion that is in private accounts as a way to fund affordable housing like they do in France through the livret A scheme?