Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that positive news. However, I stay guarded in my welcome because the LDA was set up on a non-statutory basis over four years ago and the first job it had to do was carry out an audit. Over four years later we do not have the audit. It has been on a statutory basis for over a year and we still do not have the audit. I welcome the audit and if the Minister is saying we will have it by the end of the year that is positive. We need that; it is the most basic tool and we have a housing crisis. As I listen to the headlines today, once again the head of the Simon Community in Galway has made known her fear at what is happening in Galway. The level of homelessness is rising and there are no available properties under the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, or the housing assistance programme, HAP.

On the register of relevant lands, the most basic thing is to get it and then we will see how it will be used. I have a worry that we might use some of it inappropriately in an emergency situation. If land is zoned as recreational and amenity land, I have a difficulty with the possibility of that land being taken.

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