Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for that comprehensive report. I welcome the fact that the call for the funding will be issued later this week. From what the Minister of State stated, I am not quite sure it will be exclusively to fund State lands or public lands. Let us not get caught up on whose they are. They are public lands.

The real controversy is that we have vast tracts of State lands and we have thousands and thousands of people without homes. There is a focus on the private sector and I accept that there is a logic in some of that. I do not have any ideological hang-up with who - public, private or whatever - builds houses but the time has come where we need to put in place supports to get these landbanks into action for houses for our people. That is the key, particularly with local authorities.

The Minister of State did not touch on the land aggregation scheme today but he might be mindful of it. The Department would have rejected many submissions for the land aggregation scheme and local authorities are stuck paying vast interest on lands as well.

The key focus must be on telling people that we will use State lands - the people's assets, the taxpayers' assets - and funds to get people into houses. These are our people who want to purchase affordable accommodation to provide homes for themselves and their families.

I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive response.