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Dáil
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

O’Devaney Gardens land costs

Summary

Deputy Boyd Barrett questions the State’s payment arrangements with private developers at O’Devaney Gardens. The Taoiseach says he lacks the document and will have the Housing Minister respond.

There are many disgraceful aspects to the Government's ideological determination to force local councils to privatise public land and hand it over to developers who helped bankrupt this country, but the aspect of this on which I would like the Taoiseach to comment is the price the State will pay. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Murphy, speaks of stripping councils of their powers. Has the Taoiseach looked at the price we will pay to the private developer to whom we have transferred land at O'Devaney Gardens, and the private developers to whom the Government plans to transfer hundreds of other sites, to buy the units back at market prices? I saw the guidelines issued by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government which show that the top prices the State will pay can be up to €526,000 for a two bedroom house, €584,000 for a three bedroom house, €704,000 for a four bedroom house, €289,000 for a one bedroom apartment and €335,000 for a two bedroom apartment. Those are the figures in the guidelines issued to Dublin City Council by the Minister at the beginning of the year. Is the Taoiseach seriously suggesting that is good value for money for public land that the Government is handing over-----

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Please, Deputy, the time is up.

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-----to these developers who wrecked the country only ten years ago?

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Is the Taoiseach taking this question?

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Leo Varadkar The Taoiseach Fine Gael

The Deputy is referring to a document which I do not have before me. My understanding is that we are not proposing to buy these homes at market price from the developer. However, as this is a detailed question about a particular scheme, I will ask the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to come back to the Deputy on the matter. I think he may have mixed up the Dublin agreement deal with the thing that actually happened.

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A parliamentary question might elicit the information the Deputy seeks.

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If the Taoiseach sends me his mobile number, I will text him the document.

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