Nama could end up having to lease its land to people growing vegetables under plans being drawn up by Dublin City Council. Its draft development plan states that an "under-utilised or derelict site in the city" will have to be used to "support the provision of community gardens, allotments, local markets and pocket parks".
 

It means that Nama may have to lease out the land to growers after it seizes it from bankrupt developers.
 

A proposed amendment to the development plan states that the council will support "temporary uses such as cafés, street markets, art galleries, allotments, parks or playing fields" on certain sites because of the "current challenging economic climate". It also says it will look positively on appropriate temporary uses as interim solutions for significantly larger sites or tracts of land as well as for smaller derelict or under-utilised sites and recently vacated buildings.
 

Dublin City Business Association wants the council to focus its efforts on bringing derelict sites into development as quickly as possible because a commission found the amount of vacant sites were "both a serious problem for the city and also the greatest opportunity to improve the attractiveness, innovation potential, sustainability" of Dublin.
 

Derelict sites in the city council currently attract a levy of 3% of their value per annum and the council said it "vigorously pursues all levies". At present there are 43 sites where levies are due but this is expected to increase in the coming years as sites fall into disrepair.