John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They must be. I completely agree with them that local authorities building houses or providing demountables on land owned by citizens was a scheme that worked very well and local authorities still provide it. It is still within the gift of local authorities to provide such schemes, and the Members outlined that the scheme still exists in Kerry. I presume they were talking about increasing the funding from the State. However, it is still within the ambit of members of Kerry Country Council to allocate more funding for such measures if they believe that more demountables or rural cottages should be built.

I acknowledge Deputy Catherine Murphy's remarks on Singapore. I happened to be there recently for the St. Patrick's Day events several months ago. I visited the urban planning initiative in the city of Singapore, and it was eye-opening. However, the version of election to government that exists in Singapore is different to what we have in this country. While it is fair to say that private ownership and the free market are significant drivers of the Singaporean economy, a lot of land is publicly owned. In fact, the state owns virtually everything. The military owns about 20% of the landmass of Singapore. While the comparison is interesting on many levels, this is quite different to our method of land ownership in this country. I do not deny the fact that local authorities, agencies and arms of the State own significant amounts of land in this country.

On tenants, it is interesting to note that there is a conflict. The Rural Independent Group Members have left but they spoke about tenant purchasing, which is diametrically opposed to the left-wing view of housing stock whereby houses that are built by the State should be kept in the housing pool, whether it is run by local authorities or centrally by Government. That is a philosophical argument that probably has never been properly had in Ireland.

I will endeavour to get Deputy Gino Kenny a specific answer about the lands he mentioned in Clondalkin. I do not have it with me. If I had it, I would give it.

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