Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We have to follow national law and European law. Approximately a year and a half ago, a general problem emerged when inflation appeared where we had never had inflation before, particularly in certain subindices. Suddenly, the price of wood, concrete or steel would go through the roof. We reached a point where it looked like certain projects would not go ahead, and there was a feeling that our capital projects were in danger. It is because of that that we introduced a new scheme whereby there was a greater sharing of the inflationary risk between the State buyer and the seller such that the entire risk of price increases would not transfer to the contractors and leave them unable to deliver the projects without going bust. We had a rebalancing of risk sharing. Most of the risk is still with the seller – the contractor – but some of it has been taken on by the State. We have also introduced a new form of contract that is linked directly with the inflationary subindices. A contractor bids at a certain price while taking into account what will happen if the price of steel, concrete or wood increases. By doing this, we have managed to get our capital projects back on track.

If the Deputy has a specific example of a contract for social housing or general housing in Mayo that went wrong, I would be happy to look into the matter for her.