Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, support the amendment. It is important that the LDA is adequately resourced. It is a unique and unprecedented intervention this Government has taken to establish the LDA on a statutory basis and use State-owned lands to deliver public homes. It is using public lands to deliver social and affordable homes. The LDA has appeared before the Oireachtas committee, as Senator Cummins stated. We meet with it regularly. We visited its site in Shanganagh, where more than 600 homes are being built. They are top-quality homes. It is a fabulous development where local authority lands are being used by the LDA to deliver social and affordable homes. It is a great project. The LDA has shared with us its plans to deliver another 14,000 homes. If I have one ask in the context of providing this extra support to the LDA, it is for the LDA to increase its activity, particularly in urban areas, such as Dublin city and its surrounding areas. The LDA has got off to a good start but it needs to accelerate and ramp up and be very ambitious. We all have a shared ambition to increase housing delivery and affordability. The LDA can play a significant part in achieving that. We need it to do so.