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Matt Cooper: Lie of the land – LDA alone cannot solve housing crisis

The role of the Land Development Agency in providing new homes is restricted by issues outside of its control, so the private sector remains a crucial part of the solution

To provide for Ireland’s housing needs, we need, by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s own publicly expressed estimate, 250,000 new homes. Picture: Colin Keegan

Any activist or politician promoting the idea that the state alone has the resources and ability to solve the housing crisis should be made to read last week’s report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) until such time as they understand the significance of its contents.

They can be summarised as such: the LDA has an important role as an agent of the state in providing new housing, but it is limited because of many ...