Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand how the landbanks work and the strategic need for them. I am just asking for an audit of them. Some of the land might be able to be used for the social and affordable housing, community facilities and crèches we will need. The Industrial Development (Amendment) Bill 2018 will come before the Dáil this evening. We will be supporting the Bill for some of the reasons the Minister of State has outlined and to ensure we do whatever we can to bring foreign direct investment into the country.

I appreciate that the availability of an adequate supply of marketable serviced land and buildings in advance of demand is a key element in IDA Ireland's ability to compete for mobile foreign direct investment and it is very successful in that. However, the housing crisis is very severe. Recently, Amazon announced 1,000 extra jobs for Dublin. Those jobs are very welcome. Although this is great news, the reality is that daft.ietoday is showing only 2,813 properties available to rent in all of County Dublin. Where will these workers live? Prices look set to continue to rise. People are being forced out of their homes by massive rents and the Government's reliance on the market is not working. Despite all the numbers the Minister of State might quote, it is simply not working for people looking for rental properties. The Government must do much more to provide places for citizens to live. It is time to carry out an audit of land that could be used for other purposes.

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