Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Budget 2017 committed to the establishment of a land development agency that would have the potential to address the Government's difficulty in meeting its targets in the provision of social housing in the sense that it would be able to take over State lands and contract the development of houses and lease the units to local authorities which did not, unfortunately, have the expertise or the wherewithal they had many years ago to deliver.

It would also have the potential to allow credit unions to invest in such a vehicle in order for them to derive a more beneficial outcome than they were getting from the pillar banks, as is the law. In the two years since only a CEO and a chairperson have been appointed. There is no land and no bricks and mortar. There definitely have been no houses. How is it that the Government cannot live up to the commitments and expectations it presented when it brought forward a commitment like that two years ago? All there is to show for it is the appointment of a CEO and a chairperson. There is no legislation to give effect to it and no prospect of it being addressed to find a solution to the terrible crisis that continues from day to day.

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