Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. He is here nearly as often as the Senators. He could be taken for a Senator if he came in any more often. I wish him well with this Bill. I have mixed feelings about it. We have a lot of State control in the country. Too much State control, in my view, is not a good thing. We have seen where NAMA failed miserably. It was the biggest land development agency in the world and it failed to deliver housing in this country. The whole NAMA situation is shameful. When it was set up, the late Brian Lenihan said there should be 25,000 units per year. That was not delivered. NAMA had the land and, in many cases, the houses, but it failed to deliver and failed the people.

I have a fear in relation to where local authorities request assistance from the Land Development Agency. We have seen this time after time when the local authority contacts the Department looking for assistance and nothing happens. It is fobbed off. In this case, the local authority in towns with populations of more than 30,000 can request the assistance of the Land Development Agency. It can look for assistance in design, money and everything to provide housing and to go into joint ventures. It will not have enough money to satisfy every town. We will be on the merry-go-round again, like with water services and sewerage. You are waiting and waiting and then you are fobbed off. Will the Minister of State make it clear that there will be an open, transparent structure in place and the local authorities will know exactly how long they will have to wait for the assistance and the money? Other than that, I welcome the Bill. I ask that the cost of the Land Development Agency be taken account in relation to unit costing so it is not just fobbed off and paid for by the Department.