Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Warfield will not be surprised I will not be supporting this amendment either. However, I want to give another reason I will not be supporting it from those already given. Having sat on a local authority for more than 12 years, frustrated by the lack of flexibility we had in delivering both social and affordable homes, to be given a credible option to deliver that as a Member and to consider we would not vote in favour of that, is running down the local authority system. It is also running down the powers of the local authority members and, more importantly, the trust we place in our local authorities members to agree a scheme fit for purpose for their people.

On that basis alone, I could not support it. I said from the word go, my purpose here today is to provide as many vehicles as possible to build affordable homes for our people. We are now giving that to our local authority members, who are crying out for different methods of delivering homes for their people.This amendment will prevent that from happening. Everyone in this House wants to see the powers of local authorities enhanced but this amendment will reduce the potential to give local authorities the power to provide affordable homes. Like Senator Boyhan and others, I have an issue with section 183 regarding the disposal of land. Hopefully, this will be dealt with through the LDA process but removing an option to allow local authority members to deliver affordable housing through the LDA is a retrograde step and I ask the Senator to withdraw the amendment.