Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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157. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to tax developers who are hoarding zoned land for housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10265/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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With regard to the availability of land for housing development in the Dublin area, a recent data gathering exercise conducted by my Department indicated that there is already appropriate zoning of land for upwards of 30,000 new homes in the Dublin region, across the four Dublin local authorities. Accordingly housing supply in the Dublin area is not necessarily constrained by the lack of available land for housing but rather by the current market viability of developing new housing projects having regard to the land acquisition, development and construction costs of bringing new houses and apartments to the market, combined with the issue of the availability of credit, both development finance and mortgage credit, and certain other factors. The Government is currently considering a strategy for the construction sector and in that context my Department will be ensuring that appropriate measures are considered to empower local authorities to ensure land is brought forward for development in a timely and sustainable manner.