Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I will move amendment No. 188 which relates to section 183 of the Local Government Act and provides that disposals would be approved by local authority members. There is a view that local authorities are delaying the delivery of social and affordable housing. Prior to the publication of the Affordable Housing Bill and this Bill, it could have been argued that it was not possible for local authorities to build the kind of public housing on public lands which I believe these Bills will now allow local authorities to do. Therefore, the full toolbox for councillors is now present in terms of having mixed income and tenure and well planned communities.

The decision to remove the power of disposal from local authority members will not be required. It is often the intransigence of officials to bring forward proposals that is the real delay. We have talked about amendments to this Bill in terms of targets for local authorities. In my amendment I am trying to find a way for councillors to express their desire to develop plans, and in that case it would not be possible for the LDA to take that land without their approval.

The power of disposal is often a leveraging and negotiation power which local authorities use to get good planning decisions or compromises in a development. I have said that where section 118 of the 2000 Act is enforced, in other words, where a local area plan has been put in place by local authority the lands subject to that section could not be disposed of without disposal by councillors. I am open to another mechanism that the Minister may have to do that, but even in places that have a higher population than small town centres we need to protect the right of councillors in their desire to develop land without that being taken from them without their approval.