Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government
Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee Stage
6:30 pm
Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
The Minister of State will not even let me talk now.
It beggars belief that the EU does not allow states to borrow money off the books at the 1.7% interest rate to invest in infrastructure because it is a no-brainer. We are pushed into the hands of PPPs where the money costs about 15%. That is just lunacy. I think the Government would have more of an appetite for building more State housing on land that is available if one were allowed to borrow money to invest in infrastructure at a market rate rather than being pushed into the hands of PPPs.