Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin TD has criticised the government representatives on Oireachtas Housing Committee who today voted to remove councillor section 183 powers on land disposals in the Land Development Agency legislation.

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“TDs from the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on the Oireachtas Housing committee today voted to remove councillor powers on land disposals in the Land Development Agency legislation.

“The local authority manager preparing a report on the sale of council land for the local authority members and the subsequent vote on this is a key local democratic function.

“This section of the LDA bill denies elected members democratic oversight in relation to local authority land.

“The removal of this section of the bill was a key demand of the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) and opposition TDs submitted amendments on foot of their demand to delete this section.

“Unfortunately, the Green Party, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil members of the Committee didn’t support this request.

“As a result, the powers of our local elected councillors are being diminished.”