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Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: I see that in 2018 the Housing Agency held 243 ha of residential development land in 72 locations. The land was transferred to the agency from local authorities under the land aggregation scheme in operation from 2013. That seems to be a lot of land. Being a farmer, I know what a hectare of land is and it seems to be a lot of land to have lying idle, from what I am reading between the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Let me help Mr. McCarthy. There are 14 acres of land at Ceannt Station which is in a central location, eight of which are included in a plan on behalf of Bus Éireann with a private developer. There are major land banks in the docks area, while there is other land that was bought at astronomical prices. Of all cities, there should not be a housing crisis in Galway, but there is. I...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Do the officials see the difficulty? The land was bought. The councillors did their job. They earmarked the land which was bought and zoned residential, but it was not built on. There was then the land aggregation scheme. The Housing Agency is holding one site, while the other was not transferred. They have not been developed.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Shane Cassells: I have a final question for Mr. John McCarthy, on land acquisition. Through the land aggregation, LAG, scheme, the Department is dealing with a series of bad land deals. Notwithstanding that, there is a definitive need for land acquisition in certain counties, especially the commuter counties. Mr. John McCarthy was kind enough to supply a table on what is in council ownership throughout...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Seán Fleming: It is a great day for solicitors. Let us say that a local authority bought land a few years ago but did not use the site. Solicitors on both sides got paid for conveyancing in order to transfer the land to the Housing Agency. Now the Housing Agency is going to transfer to the land development agency and will pay for the conveyancing again. We have about three sets of conveyancing...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

...think approximately 30 other State-owned properties, but the 700 are local authority ones. We wanted that as a baseline so that if we got applications in from local authorities to borrow money for land, we would be able to say, "You've either got this land or you don't." That has been hugely important. We have not had a significant demand for land loans. I do not want to say we are...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Mr. John O'Connor: The land at Ballymoneen in Galway city was taken over under the land aggregation scheme.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Mr. John McCarthy: Before I get to that, the first thing we wanted to do was to try to build up a good overall picture of what the land bank of local authorities was. We have that mapped now on the Rebuilding Ireland land map. There are just over 700 sites across the local authorities. That was the first piece that we wanted to put in place.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Murphy: We are continually being told that it takes time to build houses, that there is a pipeline and a lead-in time and so forth. The Land Development Agency has been set up, which offers the prospect of delivering affordable houses if there is the right mix of social and affordable houses. If there is inadequate capital available, will that have an impact on the mix or slow the work of the Land...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

...out to 2021. They need to start to think if we are going to deliver X number of units in 2021, we need to get through the construction and the planning, but before we ever get there we need the land. They are actually getting into that space, so it is a much more structured and forward-looking arrangement. If there was a need for land and if it was available at an appropriate price,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

...in their area and to take a lead role in partnering with any AHB which can play a part. We have had quite a few more rural local authorities stating to us that in areas where they did not have land there were builders who had land but did not have access to capital. In many cases, turn-key properties are a vehicle to marry them and actually get activity going in delivering social housing...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Mr. John McCarthy: I do not see that as an issue. Once the legislation is passed and the Land Development Agency is established, the intention is that it will be capitalised substantially from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF. One will not be competing with the other.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Mr. John O'Connor: We are very focused on having that land developed. It is available to any local authority that wishes to utilise it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: Did the local authorities hand it over to the Housing Agency? The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General states land was transferred from local authorities to the Housing Agency. They should have utilised it, but that is another story.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: We are being told all the time that there is no problem with funding and that money is available to build houses. As we have land and money, what is the problem? There are 239 ha available, yet the country has a housing crisis. That does not make sense.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: When is it envisaged that that 239 ha of land will be utilised and that building will happen on it? Are we talking about three, five or ten years?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Mr. John O'Connor: The land aggregation scheme.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Seán Fleming: Once the land development agency is set up, is it intended that the Housing Agency would morph into it, merge with it and transfer its assets to that agency?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Mr. John O'Connor: The Housing Agency manages the sites. In some cases, the local authority assists us in managing the sites. Where land is suitable for farming at the moment, we rent it to farmers.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Seán Fleming: I ask Mr. O'Connor to come back to us with a summary on the land that is in the ownership of the agency, the number of sites involved and the income being received from those sites. How many hectares does the agency have in its name?