Seanad debates

Monday, 12 July 2021

Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage

 

9:30 am

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are 268 acres in Malahide Castle. I wonder why that land is not covered in the amendment because obviously, we want to build on that too. This amendment was not moved with as much gusto in the Dáil by the acting spokesperson, Deputy Duncan Smith. Even Deputy Smith understood the purpose of this amendment. If one was ever to look at creating an issue out of a non-issue, this is probably one of the most spectacular examples of it. It is a magnificent misrepresentation and manipulation of the facts. Senator Byrne was right. The debate has taken place in good faith this evening. However, everyone knows that the aim here is to have a register of relevant public land identified in one place. Other Senators are talking about bringing amendments on heritage sites, and this type of thing. That creates an idea that the LDA is the bogeyman under the bed. We might as well put in the GPO so that we can say we will not convert the GPO into co-living apartments. That is where we are getting to with this type of amendment. The Bill deals with relevant public lands in ownership of public bodies in areas with a population of over 10,000. The Senator may know this from the research she did when she tabled this amendment, as well as from all the publicity that was garnered from this amendment over the past number of months.

Section 3 of the Phoenix Park Act 1925 confirms that the park is for the general purpose, recreation and enjoyment of the public. That is the clear position. Senator Casey has rightly said we have copper-fastening of county and city development plans all over the place. This is not what the LDA is going to do. All Senators know that. We all know that this is not the case. It is a register of public land. This is an example of raising an issue to say anything - an amendment has been proposed just in case the LDA is going to build in the courtyard of Dublin Castle. It will not do so. It will not transfer Dublin Castle out of the OPW to build apartments. It just simply will not. We have spent longer on this amendment than it warrants. I will not be accepting it.

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