Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

This matter is not unrelated to the debate earlier because NAMA was created to pick up the pieces from the bad debts created during the property speculation, the property bubble and the banks. I refer specifically to a number of areas in the city of Dublin, particularly Smithfield and the docklands area, because these were the subject of intense developments. Many property portfolios have been acquired by NAMA. The recent threat to the Light House Cinema is an example of what is going on, where NAMA has control of property, there is an absentee landlord and there are upwards only rents. Rent for the cinema has increased from €100,000 to €200,000 in the space of two years. The absentee landlord is based in Florida and is taking the matter to the courts to wind up the company for its inability to pay exorbitant rents.

Vast swathes of the country, and in particular urban areas in the city of Dublin, are lying idle. There are unoccupied, vacant premises, commercial and residential ghost properties. In many cases planning permission has been granted but the planning developments are partially finished or not started. A raft of areas in the docklands, including Spencer Dock, Alexander Place, Island Key, East Road, the Paper Mill, Ravensdale Road, Castleforbes and the Village Watchtower are ghost developments, partially constructed or partially occupied. Island Key has been at 37% occupation for the past number of years. The proposed headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank is a skeletal development with rusted cranes on the docklands. It is a monument to what the property bubble became. Will it ever be finished and who is in charge? NAMA has control over this. What is happening? It is derelict.

The situation in Smithfield is similar. This was once intended to be the cultural heart of the city of Dublin. The project was known as the heritage area rejuvenation project, HARP. We now have a lopsided development, with unoccupied residential units and unoccupied commercial units. In this case, an occupied commercial unit — the Light House Cinema — was threatened with a doubling of rent over two years. This is impossible to pay but the landlord is threatening to take the company to court to wind it up if it cannot pay.

The programme for Government states "We will insist on the highest standards of transparency in the operation of NAMA, on reduction in the cost associated with the operation of NAMA, and that decision-making in NAMA does not delay the restoration of the Irish property market." It is essential to get an early audit of the category and quantity of residential and commercial property. I am specifically concerned with urban areas. There is no property market at the present time and there cannot be one while NAMA is sitting on all of the property in the country. There is stagnation and we have artificial values on everything. NAMA is waiting for the market to develop. The market cannot develop unless NAMA moves. When will the Government, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, local authorities and NAMA get together to view the audit of property that NAMA now has under its control and devise a progressive mechanism to get it out into the marketplace so that we get the property market moving here and that in addition to the ghost estates we have at present we do not have derelict property that is vandalised and will give rise to huge problems as a result?

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