Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Eighty acres is a not insignificant amount of land, so I would like to hear more details of the matter after we have finished in the Dáil this evening. What I have seen so far since I began the review are ways in which the local authorities have been quite clever in using land, which is a very valuable asset and can be very expensive, to deliver things like co-operative housing models and affordable buy models for people. I have already referred to the example of Ballymun this evening and the great work that was done there by Ó Cualann and the local authority with financing support from AIB to deliver what will be 47 or 49 A2-rated family homes at affordable prices between, I think, €150,000 and €180,000, depending on the size of the house, the number of rooms, etc.

It is very important we, as a State, make sure we use our resources in the smartest way possible to get the best results for our people. To respond to a question from Deputy Cowen earlier about an affordable rental scheme, this is one of the reasons we decided not to opt for a subsidy model with the €10 million, which we then diverted into other areas, but rather to use land as leverage to get those affordable models in place. We are talking about a range of different measures. There is no one single measure. It is not just about building social houses; it is about affordable buy, affordable rent, co-operative housing and that whole mix of possibilities on a given site.

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