Land Development Agency seen as ‘an attempt to bypass local democracy’

Paul Murphy

The Government’s proposed Land Development Agency, which councillors say will reduce their power to monitor land sales in their areas, took another hammering at a recent meeting of Meath County Council.

Labour Cllr Elaine McGinty, followed by Social Democrat Cllr Ronan Moore led the charge against the proposed legislation which is designed to empower the agency to provide homes for affordable purchase, cost rental and social housing. The sticking point for many councillors is Section 183 of the proposed law which would allow local authorities to transfer lands to the LDA without requiring councillors’ votes.

Under present legislation, councillors have the power to block the sale of land. An outstanding example of this occurred in Dublin last year when councillors rejected plans to build 850 homes in a public-private partnership at Oscar Traynor Road. The name of this road was referenced frequently during a sometimes heated debate at Meath County Council.

Fine Gael Cllr Joe Fox condemned what he termed the hypocrisy of “left wing parties like Sinn Fein, the Social Democrats and the Labour Party” for blocking the Oscar Traynor development. “They’re blocking every possible housing development in the city. The left wing parties don’t want housing developments because they would have nothing to campaign against”.

Cllr McGinty said that Section 183 was designed to dis-empower councillors. The implication in this section of the Bill was that councillors were holding up progress in the provision of housing. She said that councillors should retain their monitoring role over land sales. Many people were still dealing with the outcome of the Celtic Tiger in terms of pyrite damage and fire hazards while still having to pay heavy mortgages.

Independent Cllr Nick Killian said that the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG), made up of councillors from all parties and none were against the Bill and in particular Section 183. The Dail deputies needed to be told that this proposed legislation was unacceptable to councillors.

Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Meade said: “We don’t need an agency, we need more money to be put into the councils.” Sinn Fein Cllr Aisling O’Neill said that if councillors were not allowed to monitor land sales and act as public watchdogs, then the situation would “just run riot”. Independent Cllr Gillian Toole said that it would be a complete travesty if the democratic process was to be eroded.

Fine Gael Cllr Gerry O’Connor said he was sick of people “talking out of both sides of their mouths” on the housing situation in Dublin. There was no land bank in Meath except at Farganstown in Navan and there was no money coming from the Government to buy land.

Cathaoirleach David Gilroy called a roll call vote on whether the council should write to the Government objecting to the legislation and this was passed by 19 votes to 17 with four members absent.