Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What can I say? Much has been said here today, as well as in the Dáil. I have read over the debate on this Bill in the Dáil and I have no doubt that during Committee and Report Stages in this House much will be said to create misinformation, spin and nice little sound bites to be posted on social media about the LDA, which will not do anything to advance real people getting into real houses. The Government is working together and ensuring people have affordable and social housing in the two great pieces of legislation that are going through the House, namely, the Affordable Housing Bill, which was passed last night, and this Bill.

This Bill is a game changer. I am very proud that this agency was born under a Fine Gael Minister, who brought this idea forward. We are now putting it on a statutory footing. A little bit of spin goes on in that regard as well. I am terribly fond of Senator Fitzpatrick but to use the Jim Mitchell version of the famous phrase, if you keep telling lies about us one of these days we will start telling the truth about you. There are cost-rental initiatives here that are now coming into fruition, as we said they would. I am very proud of them. I am very anxious that they come to fruition, especially in my home area of Dublin South-Central, where there are tracts of land in Cherry Orchard, Bluebell and the CIE works. There are tracts of land there about which there have been plans for years but they have not come to fruition until now. The pressure and structure of the LDA is going to allow that to happen. The combination of the Affordable Housing Bill and the Land Development Agency Bill will bring those projects to fruition. It is important that happens with a sense of urgency. The fact that Senators comment on how frequently both the Minister of State and the Minister appear in this House is a testament to that urgency and the commitment of the Government to ensuring that real people are in real houses. The pilot cost-rental scheme in Emmet Road is going to hit the ground running very soon. We have so many initiatives that are not about spouting ideology, voting against housing or setting up cynical websites like LDA Watch, which promotes press releases from political organisations opposed to housing.It is not that cynical an obstruction and delay. This is about supply. I am very proud to support this Bill.