Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The land initiative was only ever used as a financing mechanism because central government would not give local authorities the funds required to develop sites themselves. It was partly because funding was slashed after the recession of 2008 and then after the recovery because Fine Gael did not want to invest. It makes no sense to allow 50% of the homes on public lands to be sold at unaffordable open-market prices and then allow a developer to extract the full market land value from the affordable homes so that they are priced at between €325,000 and €380,000. Not even the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's economic and evaluation service thinks this is a good way to deliver homes. The report two weeks ago confirmed that the most cost-effective way to deliver public homes is through direct delivery by local authorities.

We all now have an opportunity. The vote has been taken and it is not being reversed. If the Government and Opposition along with councillors of Dublin City Council sit down together to ask how we can get this site up and running as quickly as possible, we can move the project forward. That can only be done if the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage decides to take the reins on this. As he did with St. Michael's Estate, he should guide Dublin City Council to a European Investment Bank loan and provide matching service sites funding.

Dublin City Council does not have the capacity because we have starved it of staff and resources for decades. I know the Green Party agrees with this, notwithstanding the Minister of State's reply. The only way the council will ever get the capacity is if we trust it, fund it and staff it to deliver these projects. In the interests of the community of Coolock and the Oscar Traynor Road, and the city overall, let us treat last night's vote as a wake-up call. Let us get around the table urgently, put the funding mechanism in place and send a clear signal to the housing manager in Dublin City Council that we want Part 8 planning applications for a mixed-use social affordable rental and affordable sale development on Oscar Traynor Road to be progressed next year. Finances will be secured and work should commence on site in 2022 to deliver the best-quality public housing development on public land the citizens of the city deserve.

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