Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of underfunding of Louth County Council, in particular.

12 o’clock

I note that the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, spoke about the local property tax, but at this point if we were to increase it by 10% to 15%, we would deal only with the cost of the land banks in County Louth that were bought under instruction from Government around 2006 and 2007 in many cases. We are talking around about 50 acres. Some of these land banks have been dealt with but a significant amount are left. Last year, Louth County Council spent about €1 million to service the debt. We need the Government to meet with Louth County Council, with elected representatives and with the executive about putting solutions in place that deal with the substantial unit cost of these lands. Some of them would be perfect for affordable and social housing and affordable cost rental. We need these meetings and solutions to occur as quickly as possible.

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