Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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The reason a local authority has a vacant site in the first place is that it is not in a position to develop it. The major problem is gaining access to capital to develop the site. It owns the site. With the numbers on the housing list increasing, the pressure is on public representatives to ensure the sites are developed.

I am aware that investors are willing to develop local authority land and lease back the resulting properties back to the local authority. One thing that is causing a problem is that a local authority can only enter into a lease-back arrangement for a maximum of 20 years. The legislation needs to be amended to increase this to 30 years. I think it would act as an incentive for investors to come in to develop some of the local authority sites and lease them back to the local authority over a period of time. It would address the problem by building houses rather than putting a levy and an administrative burden on local authorities.