David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 6, to delete line 33.

My amendment seeks to apply the levy to all areas regardless of what is deemed to be local housing need. Some local authorities will say there is no strong housing need in their area. That stance may be right in terms of the people who live in the area or might be on the local authority housing list in that area. The problem is that a neighbouring local authority might have huge housing waiting lists. It would be beneficial if we made the levy applicable to all local authorities, regardless of housing need. Some local authorities may not have large land banks of vacant sites that are serviced and ready for housing, as the Minister of State has said. There are some such sites, but there may not be enough of them in the areas of local authorities that have a longer housing list. One may have vacant sites in areas that may not have, on the face of it, a housing need as deemed by the local authority. If housing was available, perhaps people from outside the local authority area might be encouraged to live in those areas, which would be better for social integration as well. The purpose of both amendments is to apply the levy to all areas regardless of housing need. Amendment No. 2 seeks to delete line 33 in section 5, which is on page 6. Amendment No. 4 seeks to eliminate the words "housing need".