Madam, - Fintan O'Toole (Opinion, April 24th) has some interesting things to say about the housing market. The massive windfall profits being made by landowners and speculators following the rezoning of land for development has been crying out for attention for years.
In the early 1970s the Kenny report proposed that agricultural land required by a local authority could be purchased by it with a mark-up of 25 per cent on its current value. The 2004 report of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution recommended a return to the Kenny proposals after 30 years of inaction.
Every euro gained by a land speculator ends up as a euro being spent many times over by a mortgage holder paying interest over 35 years or more. This is a scandal which has been allowed to continue for far too long.
Perhaps some assiduous person who fancies himself as a candidate in the forthcoming general election would tell us in simple terms why every major political party has shirked this issue for more than 30 years. - Yours, etc,
SEAMUS KILLEEN, Glencarraig, Sutton, Dublin 13.