Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In reply to Deputy Ó Caoláin I again make the point, as I have done several times, that 10,000 sites were available. Most developers will tell one that the process takes six years and it was never the intention to make the sites available and to build in the same year. However, the sites are now available, and there are people to get on with it. The quicker they do so, the better. Some of the sites have been used in land swaps where the developer is given the land and people get their houses straight away. Others are under construction, and I hope the local authorities that have now been given this land, which they did not previously have, can get on with it. There seem to be plenty of builders in the country who are very fast at doing this. One hopes that they will simply get on with it. My task was to try to get the State to give those sites from its own land banks. I gave that commitment, which I have now been honouring for almost a year. I have totally fulfilled my commitment, and I would like to see them built, but I am not much help in that regard as I am not a builder — I might not be much good if I tried.

See this speech in context