Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses from the IPI for being here. As a county councillor, I benefited greatly from attending the IPI annual conference and getting a feel for what is happening in the planning world. I encourage other councillors to do that.

What I hear today is that this measure in the medium term is likely to dampen development land prices but in the short term it could create inflation. That is a concern. If that is a real concern, my main question is what we can do to insulate ourselves and the market from that.

I agree with councils having the ability to CPO land, effectively at a reduced rate, in an effort to actively manage land better. In my constituency we have had two SDZs and I saw exactly what Mr. Jones talks about in terms of the toing and froing between various landowners and various interests. I am interested in hearing at what point the enablement of CPOs by the council would be allowed. At what point is that the desired outcome or is it always that way?

I agree that the land value register is going to be key because having that on public record and available for everybody to see is, first, transparent and, second, will have wider repercussions on the pricing.

I have a specific query in response to the call-out on exemptions by Mr. Jones. He specifically called out five or fewer units and commercial settings of fewer than 500 sq. m. What is his concern with the exemption? What are his recommendations on how we can ensure that in the immediate term this does not have any negative implications?