Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Just for clarity, phase 2 land cannot be developed, full stop, until all of phase 1 land has been used up. There should be no liability to any owner of that land while it remains in phase 2. That needs to be set out clearly because a tax cannot be put on something when somebody is not making it available because it is not going to be used.

My other concern about all of this, going back to the discussion we had about housing, is that we are trying to zone more land to make sure the price of land for development comes down while at the same time we are pushing up the price of developing land. For instance, in Tuam, where are we going zone land now? The proposal from the county council is to reduce the town area. Land that was zoned previously has been taken out of it and it is all being pushed into the centre. Some of that land is not accessible or serviced. We have what I see as a mechanism, through these local area plans, whereby the price of developing land is being driven up because it is being made very scarce. Why have we phase 1 and phase 2? Why do we not zone land that is suitable for development, full stop, so that we have more of a supply, thus reducing the price of the land and making housing more affordable?

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