Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

This is unbelievable. What is emerging is that the vacant site levy will not help us to develop social housing. On closer scrutiny, my reading of section 23(1) is that any money received by a planning authority pursuant to section 15 should be spent by it:

(a) where the vacant site comprises residential land [if there is a vacant site that is residentially zoned], on the provision of housing on residential land in the vicinity of the site, and (b) where the vacant site comprises regeneration land, on the development and renewal of regeneration land in the vicinity of the site.

There may never be social housing from whatever funds come forward from this. That says it all. Is it an ideological matter whereby the Government is completely opposed to council housing? Is it a Thatcherite thing that it has an aversion to local authority housing?

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