Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have concerns about the amendment and do not support it. While I have major concerns about the LDA, we will have opportunities under the Land Development Agency Bill to examine some of those.As I said earlier, we must have mixed tenure and use every available resource, vehicle and opportunity to provide homes for people.

There are some issues with the LDA. Some of the Senators who are present are members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage and recently we had a very good engagement with the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, and the Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA. We have a very good working relationship with both the AILG and LAMA. One of the issues that we discussed in some depth was the fact that the AILG had been in touch with members of the committee to suggest a number of amendments. Not all the amendments are going to get through. In fairness to Deputy Eoin Ó Broin, the Sinn Féin spokesperson, he undertook to give serious consideration to them. I, too, undertook to pursue those amendments and we will have an opportunity.

All is not well with aspects of the LDA but, again, there are issues to be negotiated and discussed. I am conscious that there are two blocks of land in the Dún Laoghaire constituency, where I live, and the functional area of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. One is the Shanganagh Castle estate lands that have remained empty for years. Indeed, if Senator Michael McDowell were present he might talk about the site because he was the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform at the time when a considerable amount was spent on the site. It was a waste asset that was left there while we had thousands of people languishing on our housing list and, perhaps, the biggest number of people trying to buy housing. It is virtually impossible to buy housing. As I said earlier this week, I perused the website, Daft.ie,last week and saw that a broken down cottage with its windows falling out had a price tag of a few hundred thousand euro. The reality is someone would not get a loan for that purchase.

There are challenges and exciting opportunities relating the site at the Central Mental Hospital in providing mixed tenure and, hopefully, a little commercial property. I acknowledge the LDA must wash its face, pay its administration costs and develop other sites in partnership. Of course, I would like to see greater partnership. Senator Warfield made a very good point about concerns with local authorities.

At the committee meeting there was a discussion with Councillor Anne Colgan. She talked about the relationship that the local authority had with two aspects of the LDA. One was with Shanganagh Castle, which was the local authority relationship, and one was with the LDA in terms of the Central Mental Hospital Dundrum, which was formerly owned by the Office of Public Works and may still be but it is a different type of relationship. In both cases, Councillor Colgan told us that there was a positive relationship. There were difficulties but the relationship was positive, engaging and respectful. In many cases, the LDA was more forthcoming than the local authority in certain circumstances. Of course, the local authority would have said that it had concerns, the location was price sensitive, commercially sensitive, planning sensitive and there were a load of issues.

In terms of the endgame, I keep asking my colleagues and friends the following question: where are we now and where do we want to be?The target and the game are to deliver houses with mixed tenure. That is what we need to do. We want to expand the offer of who builds and creates these houses and where they are built. That synergy is so important. As we all agreed, this is about homes. Senator Warfield spoke about including community groups and trusts and the Minister acceded to and supported that amendment, for which I thank him. I am not in the business of excluding anybody. That will not get us anywhere.

We may have to tweak the legislation and curtail certain aspects of the LDA. In that regard, I will flag one area where I have a problem, namely, the perceived threat many elected members of local authorities see in respect of section 183 disposals. We can deal with that, however, using mechanisms such as arbitration. As the Minister with responsibility for local government and local democracy, the Minister will know that the only reason councillors are concerned is that elected members of all parties and none believe they can, through section 183, introduce conditionality to a release or disposal. Anyone in a local authority will be familiar with that. It is an important point and we need to bridge that gap and address the issue. I engage with the local authority members almost on a daily basis and I am picking up from members of all parties and none that we need to deal with the issue by having local authority members retain the section 183 power on the basis of applying conditionality to what lands will be used for, which must ultimately be for housing. We can address those concerns. As I said, I would have concerns about excluding the LDA entirely from this process.