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

Local authorities are building houses on their own land. That is happening. The local authority in Louth is purchasing houses compulsorily and it does have money to repair houses and have them re-let. On debt on land, a land aggregation scheme was done after the crash. Working with the Housing Agency, we took on a number of landbanks and resolved the debt issues that existed for those local authorities. It is because of debt issues like those that we are being more careful and prudent in terms of how we are spending our money this time around in building public housing on public land. We are in the process of considering the potential for a further land aggregation scheme in the future where it may be necessary. The land has to be in locations where it makes sense to build houses.

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