Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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664. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the progress county councils (details supplied) have made in purchasing industrial land for housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11467/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Local Authorities are independent in the execution of their powers and the directly elected members are democratically accountable for all expenditure of the authority, including expenditure on land.

In terms of lands owned by local authorities, all local authorities are required to record assets, including all land assets, in the Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet), in accordance with the Local Authority Accounting in Ireland Code of Practice and Accounting Regulations, which is available on my Department's website at the following link:

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The active management of the publicly owned housing land bank is part of a range of complementary actions being progressed under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, designed to accelerate and increase housing output.  To this end, details of some 1,700 hectares of land in local authority and Housing Agency ownership were published on the Rebuilding Ireland Housing Land Map, with the potential to deliver some 42,500 homes nationally.  These mapped sites can be viewed at the following link:

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Local authorities are also required to confirm and update the data on a quarterly basis to ensure that the information held on this mapping database is fully up to date.

In addition to this mapping exercise, all local authorities have been requested to prepare Strategic Development and Management Plans for housing lands in their ownership, with particular emphasis on prioritising those sites with the greatest potential to deliver housing at scale, in the short to medium term. The plans received to date are currently being reviewed by my Department and, when finalised, they will be made available publicly, both on the dedicated Rebuilding Ireland website, as well as on the website of the relevant local authority.  

Moreover, it is proposed to establish a National Regeneration and Development Agency to assist in ensuring a more effective approach to strategic land management, particularly in terms of publicly owned land. The Agency will act as a national centre of expertise, working with and supporting local authorities, public bodies and other interests, to harness public lands as catalysts to stimulate regeneration and wider investment and to achieve compact, sustainable growth, with a particular emphasis on complex regeneration projects.

No submissions have been received by my Department with regard to the issue of purchasing industrial land for housing.