Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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In the absence of such a provision, this is a mechanism to force the privatisation of local authority land. The only way the local authority will be able to come up with plans that it can finance, if the Government does not guarantee the local authority the money, is by handing the land over to private developers, who will take it and lease it back to the council at a further cost to the taxpayer and to the State, and this will ultimately result in a loss of public housing that might have been owned by the State. If this were the case, I would be resolutely opposed to the Bill. I am asking the Minister whether he is guaranteeing money for local authorities that come forward with plans for land that they currently own. I would be very happy but surprised if that were true.