Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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One of the previous speakers was very anxious to draw the distinction between developers and builders and putting funds in place for the construction industry to meet national policy objectives. In a way, the debate must move on from this demonisation of developers. With all due respect to NAMA, receivers, liquidators, accountants, solicitors or barristers, none of them has built houses at the end of the day. We need the skill set that developers have in building houses, and we need to accelerate the process. From my engagement with developers, I know that very few are in a financial position to build houses without assistance from NAMA. They are finding it very difficult to raise finance in the current banking environment. In the Cork area there are less than a handful of developers in a position to continue building houses. The witnesses circulated figures about funding being made available, which indicated that there was approximately €3 billion or €4 billion for developers for offices and housing. What is the cost of the financing being made available to developers?