Dr. Donal McManus:

We do not have land banks in our sector. We used to use the local authority low-cost sites scheme, which was very useful for many years both for social and affordable housing. That is why we thought the Land Development Agency would be a good vehicle to assemble land for social and affordable housing. Like Professor Norris, we would be keen for the LDA to retain that function.

On turnkeys, it is complex issue. We have had a lot of so-called turnkeys since 2016 and Rebuilding Ireland. Some 20,000 households would not have been housed over that period without that. Let us be clear that turnkeys were essential then. We have transitioned towards direct new builds. It is a complex issue and sometimes people pit homeowners against social and affordable housing tenants, which is very unhelpful in terms of discussion. We see it in various newspaper articles. Social and affordable housing tenants and owners have no less right to be housed than homeowners, and that is our narrative.

Obviously, it takes time to move to more large-scale construction because the land bank, resources and financial wherewithal must be built up. Like local authorities, that has taken five or ten years. To be clear, turnkeys have served a really important function and without them 20,000 households would not have been housed over the last ten years.