John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a balance to be struck between people's constitutional right to purchase property - in this case, a site - and hold onto it for a period of time. Looking back at what went on in the property market in recent years, we see that much of the activity was speculative, that is, it was designed to make a short-term profit. The only profit that was made was on the backs of those people who wanted to have a house located on a particular piece of land. It was the same in Waterford as it was in many other cities and counties. Deputy Wallace is 100% correct that if we allow lots of land to be bought up by people who are hoping to get five or six times what they paid in a few years time, then we are falling into the same trap into which previous Governments fell. The party that was in power for 14 years allowed all this speculation and landbanking to take place.

I acknowledge there is a difficulty for the Minister of State in that this issue touches on the constitutional right of citizens to own property. It is very difficult to find a way of imposing conditions on how long a person may own a piece of land and what they can do with it. We must, however, find some way to prevent what happened in the past, where so much land was left aside for no other reason than to make a profit on it. That is what Deputies Wallace and Ellis are seeking in this amendment. There must be some mechanism whereby we can prevent speculation without interfering with the right of the individual to buy land and do with it as he or she wishes.

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