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

The Minister is being wildly optimistic about the impact of the Land Development Agency on the price of private land in the private sector. We will have a row about the Land Development Agency when the Bill comes before the select committee in two weeks.

The real problem here is that the Minister does not seem to understand the question. Due to high levels of speculative investment, particularly in the inner city but also at suburban land sites, land prices have gone up dramatically again. The SCSI report shows an increase of between 40% and 60% since its previous study in 2017. That adds enormously to the cost of delivering the homes and then selling them. The Minister is aware that his constituency is particularly badly affected and median house prices are between €460,000 and €540,000. Escalating land prices are part of that. Is the Government taking any initiatives beyond the Land Development Agency to bring down the cost of finance, land and construction in the overall private sector, which is still ultimately responsible for 80% to 90% of construction, including PPPs, turnkey projects and smart finance?

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