Seanad debates

Thursday, 15 July 2021

Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages

 

9:30 am

Photo of Marie SherlockMarie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking to amendment No. 22, which seeks to delete section 58 of the Bill. Time and again, as we have heard this afternoon in this Chamber, we hear about the importance of the role of local authorities with regard to city and county development plans and all the other great work they do. The reality for many of us who have sat on a local authority, however, is that very few powers are available to the councillors and elected members of local authorities. Section 183 is one of those powers.

Senator Gallagher made an important point when he said there is nothing to stop a local authority bringing forward a proposal with regard to housing. That is absolutely true. The key difference, however, is that they can be bringing forward all these proposals but may not have the power. There are two sets of power here. There is power in terms of accessing funding, which we know local authorities have great difficulty in doing in respect of housing, but there is also the issue of councillors on local authorities controlling their land.That is what this amendment is about and we support Senator Boyhan's amendment also.

Senator Martin made an important point. Public land is the people's land and has to be held to a higher standard. That is why it is so important that those in local authorities who are elected by the people retain that role in the disposal of land.

We have heard the debate and we know that the Government is not accepting the amendments but it is nonetheless important that we make this point today.

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