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

The Minister is aware that the housing committee has written to him wanting to know if pre-legislative scrutiny on the general scheme is possible in view of the fact that most of the committee members are new. It would be helpful if he would give the committee an indication of whether he is willing to do that or not. The committee would of course expedite such a request. I am very concerned, however, because the issue of FOI and the lobbying register remains as problematic today as it was before. The issue of lack of CPO powers remains as it was before and the lack of clarity on the volume of social and genuinely affordable housing that will be delivered on these significant pieces of public land is still as unclear as it was before. Pre-legislative scrutiny would give us an opportunity to tease this out.

We do not want to delay the Bill but the most important thing is to get it right and not to rush it, particularly in light of the significant role it is going to play in the years ahead. If we get this wrong, if the set-up does not do what the programme for Government promises, we will end up with a vehicle with very limited adequate public scrutiny of its commercial activities and with very little active land management functions in social and affordable housing, and that would be a bad day's work on everyone's part.

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