Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations. As I was watching the proceedings on the monitor earlier, I caught their earlier contributions. It would take a lot on their part to convince me that there was a point in even looking at public private partnerships. Will they explain to me how under any circumstance it could be cheaper, faster and more efficient to go through what seems inevitably to be a more complex and cumbersome process in which we must involve private sector actors and their concerns about risk, the market and so on and essentially pander to them and de-risk things for them? Is it the job of the State to de-risk things for the private sector, as opposed to using our own money to build on land we own, taking out site costs or whatever one calls them, to

provide houses at the cost needed, getting architects in to design them, putting infrastructure in place and then getting brickies, carpenters, electricians and the rest to go in and put them up? A building worker will say that if the basics are done, a house will be built in six weeks. Therefore, I do not understand how this just goes on and on.

In that regard, I would like to ask about a specific site in Shanganagh. I understand various options being discussed for the site have been referred to the National Development Finance Agency because, inexplicably in my opinion, the council is required to look at a PPP. The elected councillors do not want one and I am absolutely certain the people of the area do not want one. They want public and affordable housing for people who are on the waiting list and those who are above the income thresholds to be included in the list and who cannot afford to buy in the private market. That is what they want. They want to be able to rent or buy in the private market. It seems that it is logically and obviously the case that it could be done as one big bundle. The councils could put the infrastructure in place and design the stuff themselves. Obviously, they can build at the lowest possible cost because they do not have to seek outside finance or borrow. We could use the State's own money and not borrow. There would be no risk involved because we know that there are plenty of people on the housing list to take the houses, as well as plenty of people who cannot buy in the private market and who would be jumping over one another to take a cost rental and affordable house. Is there any case in which the model I am setting out would be less efficient than all of the PPPs, with all of their complexities and all of the other considerations that necessarily must be included?