Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will again be very clear, as I was in my initial reply. There are 68 ha of land, not 50 acres, available to the local authority in Louth to develop housing. That land could accommodate 1,700 houses. I say it again for the record, we are very clear that funding is available to develop more schemes on lands owned by Louth County Council. I cannot make it any clearer than that. We have engaged with the council and I have met with officials so I am aware that the council is paying interest on debts associated with the purchase of land. I made it very clear to the council that the best way to solve that problem is to bring forward proposals to develop the land. The most recent opportunity was under the SSF but Louth County Council did not make an application in that regard. I wish to be very clear. A second call will be issued to local authorities very soon and we will work with the council to bring forward proposals under the fund. We want the landbank to be developed. We also made it very clear a number of months ago that we will fund some feasibility works on all the sites to enable the council to bring forward proposals. We want the lands to be developed. That is black and white.

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