Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I followed quite a bit of that session yesterday at the joint committee. It was really interesting, including Senator Boyhan's contribution. As he stated, there is something very strategic and big happening right across the housing sphere and we see that with the increase in the number of commencements. In my own county, the social housing provision is up by more than 60%, which will reduce the social housing waiting list. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and officials have been incredibly proactive across the Department to try and address the housing crisis through as many measures as possible.

The enactment of the Land Development Agency Act 2021, providing for the establishment of the LDA as a commercial State agency, marked an historic move to use all lands available to the State to provide for housing supply and affordability needs. The Act provided for the establishment of a new LDA designated activity company, DAC, and the initial capitalisation of the LDA DAC by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF. The LDA DAC was incorporated by the Companies Registration Office on 20 December 2021 and, following a direction issued by the Minister for Finance and the establishment of a bank account by the LDA DAC, the initial €100 million of the LDA's €1.25 billion ISIF capital allocation to the LDA DAC has now been transferred from ISIF by the NTMA.

The LDA will work with local authorities, State agencies and the private sector to deliver housing and to identify public and private lands for development purposes. Prior to Housing for All, the LDA already had access to an initial tranche of eight sites and it is currently developing those sites, which include Castlelands in Balbriggan and the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. It is also working collaboratively with a number of local authorities to bring forward other State lands, such as the developments at St. Teresa's Gardens and at Shanganagh. Under Housing for All, the State committed to transferring a further tranche of 20 sites to the LDA, with the potential to deliver up to 15,000 homes, including lands at the Digital Hub in Dublin and Colbert Station in Limerick, which Senator Boyhan referred to.

A list of those additional State lands is available in Housing for All and the LDA is actively progressing the transfer of those sites with the relevant State owners. It should be noted that these site transfers are at an early stage and more work is needed to enable transfer of the sites. Officials at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are working with the LDA to progress site transfers and any issues are being actively considered by a State lands subgroup of the overall Housing for All delivery group, on which the LDA is represented. The LDA is already working on baseline assessments and feasibility assessments for many of these sites. Senator Boyhan will be glad to know there will be no delay in their development.

The LDA is currently developing a register of all relevant public lands owned by local authorities and other bodies listed under Schedules 1 and 2 to the LDA Act. The focus of the register is on sites in urban population areas greater than 10,000. An initial prototype mapping tool has already been completed by the LDA and is available on its website. On commencement of section 50 of the LDA Act, this register will be put on a statutory footing.

I note the points raised by Senator Boyhan about the number of competing interests for these land banks. The criteria for the delivery of housing must include the sustainability of transport corridors and public transport in urban centres. There is a very strong, cohesive approach from a housing perspective to achieve critical mass in terms of housing delivery in the coming years.