New land bill 'an affront to democracy' 

Members of Cork City Council said some of the provisions in the Land Development Agency Bill would strip locally elected members of key powers around the disposal of public land to the agency

Cllr Terry Shannon has been critical of the Government's plans for land supply regulation.

Parts of a new bill to regulate the supply of public land for housing have been branded “an affront to local democracy”.

Members of Cork City Council said some of the provisions in the Land Development Agency (LDA) Bill would strip locally elected members of key powers around the disposal of public land to the agency.

They have now called on Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien to scrap several sections of the bill, which is at second stage before the Dáil.

Fianna Fáil councillor Terry Shannon, chair of the council’s housing strategic policy committee and a close political ally of Taoiseach Micheál Martin, said it is widely accepted that there are issues stalling the delivery of housing on some publicly-owned landbanks in Dublin. But he said those problems haven’t materialised elsewhere.

“This bill is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut,” he said.

And we setting up a directly elected mayor in Limerick, yet here we are taking key powers away from that office holder. Where is the joined-up thinking?” 

He said the LDA should be tackling land-hoarding and dereliction instead.

The issue arose during a lengthy debate at this week’s City Council meeting on three almost identical motions from independent councillors Paudie Dineen, Ken O’Flynn and Thomas Maloney, urging the council to make a formal submission to the Housing Minister on the bill.

They singled out the proposed removal of Section 183 of the Local Government Act, provided for in Part 7, Section 56 of the bill, which relates to the reserved function of elected members in relation to the disposal of local authority-owned or held land.

If the bill passes, councillors would have no decision-making powers around the disposal of local authority land to the LDA.

Mr Shannon also raised concerns about Section 49 of the bill, which he said puts "an obligation" on councillors to cooperate with the LDA.

Cork City Council, which built just one social housing unit in 2014, now has almost 1,200 social and affordable housing units under construction.

Last month, councillors approved a €40m bridging loan facility to fast-track the delivery of hundreds more affordable homes.

And it has just issued a call to the open market seeking expressions of interest from builders and developers to build a 600-unit residential community on a 54-acre publicly owned landbank on the northside of the city.