Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important as we exit Covid that the Land Development Agency hits the ground running because it is a State developer and will have access to large tracts of public land. It is going to masterplan new communities and rebalance the country regionally and for sustainability, but I would like to raise a few issues that could put sand in its cogs. First, the recent interim chair, who is stepping down, indicated that funding of €2.5 billion is not enough and that the agency’s mission may be curtailed. My back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest he is right and that it would allow only about 6,000 houses to be built and a relatively small land bank to be created. Second, we need to streamline the public procurement process. In this regard, the largest city council, Dublin City Council, is having real difficulty in that it takes four to six years to get a project off the ground. Finally, we must ensure the funding is off balance sheet so we achieve the maximum impact and so the agency's operations are not affected by the vagaries of public finances. I ask the Taoiseach to look seriously at those issues.

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