Irish Examiner view: Councillors object to land bill proposals

Bill is a belated effort to bring public land into play to confront housing crisis.

Some members of Cork City Council have described elements of the Land Development Agency (LDA) Bill as "an affront to local democracy". 

The bill, whatever its merits or otherwise, is a belated effort to bring public land into play in a bid to confront our housing crisis. 

That crisis is so great that almost any measure must be considered, if it might help deliver homes for the tens of thousands of people trapped, in one way or another, by this great social failure.

It is, of course, necessary to be sure that the bill, which has reached its second stage in the Dáil, does not confer an inappropriate advantage on anyone and that its terms and consequent land sales or agreements be done in the full glare of public scrutiny. 

We have had more than enough of well-intended privatisations that, ultimately, disadvantaged consumers. 

Councillors' concerns focus on Section 183 of the Local Government Act, which relates to the reserved function of elected members on the disposal of local-authority-owned or local-authority-held land. 

If the bill passes as is, councillors would have no power around the disposal of local authority land to the LDA.

Those concerns may be well-founded, but it would be far easier to support the councillors had the city council found a way, through compulsory purchase orders or some other mechanism, to bring the myriad derelict sites pockmarking the city into play long before anyone thought of these proposals. 

Where there's a will, there's a way...