Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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606. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the legislative measures and-or ministerial guidelines that are in place to ensure that the ownership of council lands cannot be placed permanently outside the control of the elected members of that council through a previous disposal of such lands to a wholly owned subsidiary of the council with the chief executive as its sole shareholder and operating as a special purpose vehicle for the private commercial development of such lands and thereby ensuring that such lands cannot be used in the provision of social housing by the council or by approved housing bodies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28067/18]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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607. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the process by which a council may through the use of section 183 of the Local Government Act 2001 divest its ownership of council lands and transfer such lands to a wholly owned subsidiary of the council with the chief executive as its sole shareholder; if such a disposal to a wholly owned subsidiary of the council is considered a full disposal of the council’s interest in such lands and therefore placing such lands outside the reach of Government policy and ministerial directives in respect of the use of publicly owned lands for the provision of social and affordable housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28068/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 606 and 607 together.

Every local authority is required to maintain a register of all lands in its ownership, or leased by the local authority. When land is no longer held by the local authority, the date and manner in which the local authority ceased to hold such land and the consideration, if any, paid to the local authority in respect of such land, must also be recorded.

In relation to the disposal of land, elected members are required to be notified, under Section 183(1) of the Local Government Act 2001, as amended, of any proposal to dispose of land held by a local authority. Such notification shall include particulars of the land, the names of the persons from whom the land was acquired and to whom it is to be disposed of, and the consideration proposed in respect of the disposal.

It is a matter for the local authority elected members, by resolution, to decide to amend the terms of the disposal or resolve that the disposal not be carried out.

Any issue of whether an individual land transaction falls within the terms of section 183 is a function of the specific circumstances involved.  If there is a doubt as to whether the terms of section 183 have been appropriately applied in an individual case, this is a matter that the elected members should pursue with the Chief Executive, in the first instance, and legal advice on the matter should be obtained, as necessary.

One of the key objectives of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is to increase the supply of high quality social housing and homes at more affordable price points on local authority lands as quickly as possible, particularly in areas where demand is greatest. In that regard, details of some 1,700 hectares of land in local authority and Housing Agency ownership were published on the Rebuilding Ireland Housing Land Map on 27th April 2017. These sites can be viewed at the following link: .