Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 48:

In page 9, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “ “cost rental dwellings” means dwellings, the rent for which is to be calculated so that it covers only the cost of building (not including the cost of site provision but including the cost of any loans), managing and maintaining the dwellings;”.

This amendment is another attempt to extract from this Bill any opportunity for profiteering as much as possible. It aims to define cost rental for dwellings by taking the value of the land out of the equation. The value of land is the fundamental issue as to why house prices are the way they are. It feeds into the cost of everything related to that.

That is where this amendment is coming from. We feel that if the Land Development Agency Bill is to work it will require amendments such as this. This amendment will ensure that, when proposals are brought by the Land Development Agency, the public, local people and local councillors can be confident that they will not be faced with decisions that they have to trade off when it comes to profiteering. We feel that this is a way of doing that. Will the Minister strongly consider this amendment?