Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak in favour of the Land Development Agency Bill. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has really taken the lead since he came into the Department. Housing has floundered for far too long. Fianna Fáil in government always delivered on housing and I am glad to see the Minister again taking the front foot in this regard.

There are a few important details in the Bill we need to focus on rather than the sideline issues presented tonight. The salient points are that this will give a statutory basis to the Land Development Agency and give a positive State intervention in line with EU state funding rules. Already work is under way on 4,000 homes. That is important and this deals with towns with a population in excess of 10,000 people.

Many of us in this Dáil Chamber have come from council chambers where, in the past, votes were put before councillors. I am glad to see there is an element in this Bill that bypasses, insofar as the Land Development Agency is concerned, those awkward votes in council chambers. I am sure that will be welcomed by Sinn Féin because, although I am a Clare Deputy, I read the other day that in Dublin there would have been an extra 6,000 houses built were it not for the votes Sinn Féin councillors in Dublin have opposed. This will get them out of that sticky wicket.

Something I saw in my councillor years and could not believe was ransom strips, a little strip of 1 m ground at the end of a cul-de-sac. Developers put it there with a little bit of a kerb and a little grass area. To get in beyond it to bring services or build more houses required someone to pay a ransom, sometimes running to several hundred thousand euro - or even up to €1 million in one case. This brings in a compulsory purchase order, CPO, power in regard to that. There should be no barrier to another phase of development. Why should we put barriers or obstacles to people having homes? This Bill is another measure that the Minister, his Department and the Government seeks to introduce to ensure there is a supply of housing for people, particularly young people, who desperately need to get on the property ladder.

I am a Deputy for County Clare, living in the south of the county. We are only a few miles from Limerick city and I offer a word of caution to the Minister and his Department. Limerick City and County Council has had to regenerate three neighbourhoods because too much housing was put in one part of the city without the ancillary services and social services to back it up. We have seen areas like the south side of Limerick regenerated. We have to learn lessons from that. We want to see quality housing, which is part of the ethos of the Department, backed up by good schools and community infrastructure. That is the type of community building we want to see.

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