Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have concerns about the Land Development Agency and how it will work. My concerns revolve around the fact that we expect it to be a panacea that will change everything in land development and getting land ready for housing. The decision to bypass the local authorities is not a good one. I say that because I see in my county that houses are being built by local authorities and social housing is being built.

The most important thing I will say is that, with regard to making land available, a number of things have gone wrong. Number one is that when we do county development plans and local area plans, we do not zone enough residential land. We do it on a desktop study without knowing if the land is available, will ever become available, can be sold, is for sale or is landlocked. I have seen all these situations where we zone land on a basis of projected growth.

I raise this idea of having dense development in our towns and cities. We should learn the lessons of the past on that and not talk about building houses without building communities. It is very important that the Land Development Agency, if it is to be charged with all that, is funded properly to do it all. Alternatively, will it be like Irish Water? That was put in place to provide water and waste water facilities and we now find it is an impediment to construction works going ahead because it is not properly funded.

It is a serious issue we face and I do not believe the Land Development Agency will solve the problems. I respect what the Minister is trying to do but I have concerns about the fact the local authorities are being bypassed. Their expertise, their skills and the councillors are being taken out of the equation.

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