Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 6, line 29, after "land" where it secondly occurs to insert "not owned by a local authority or publicly owned housing body".

The purpose of the amendment is that local authority sites and publicly owned sites should not be the subject of a vacant levy. Although all efforts should be made to use such lands for social housing, this is not possible due to the lack of funding from the State. At present, Dublin City Council owns land to build thousands of houses, but it does not receive the funding to build them. Imposing this levy would only make it more difficult and would lead to lands being sold off to private developers or speculators who can afford the levy or afford to build. It could also mean that levies would be imposed on lands that local authorities zone for parks, other play areas or areas of land sprinkled around. Where would it end? This is a bad idea with regard to local authorities and publicly owned sites, which are very important for various reasons, and there should be flexibility. In the past we have turned much of this land and many of these vacant sites into playgrounds and other amenities. The possibility of levies on any of these lands would be a disaster.

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