Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The suggested amendment would not be accurate in terms of either the consistent meaning of "owner" already contained in planning legislation or to NAMA's loan connection with land assets. If anything, the amendment would potentially cause confusion and concern about inconsistency in the application of the levy by indicating the obligations of the actual owner may be different depending solely on the lending institution from which he or she borrows. This is why we oppose the amendment.

Deputies spoke about economic viability and how to get the private sector going again. The Bill is just one mechanism being adopted to address viability issues and reduce overheads. The Bill has three main parts. We will reduce Part V obligations from 20% to 10%, and we will speak about this in more detail later. The Bill deals with the ability of local authorities to reduce the development levies on existing planning permissions which builders state are not viable and cannot deliver houses. There will be flexibility for local authorities to reduce the cost so that they can get building. The third measure is the vacant site levy, about which we have spoken. There will also be other measures. The Government will make other interventions on a number of fronts to stimulate and normalise the construction market so we can increase supply. It is important that this happens, and we need to continuously evaluate how delivery is going.

NAMA's mandate has five strategic objectives, which are to redeem senior debt of €30.2 billion by the end of 2018 and subordinated debt of €1.6 billion by March 2020; optimise income and the disposal value of assets; deliver grade A offices in the Docklands strategic development zone; deliver 4,500 new housing units by the end of 2016; and make a positive social and economic contribution. This is the mandate and it is what NAMA is working towards. For the information of Deputies, 90% of NAMA sites are in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, which will be the main focus for the Bill in terms of regeneration of urban sites.

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