James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Is there not an opportunity to kick out the middleman, as such, in terms of getting the councils directly in contact with smaller builders rather than having to work with a developer? To many, a developer might appear to be a large conglomerate or a multimillionaire, but in many cases there are people throughout the country who may just own land that is zoned, who can create a company and source finance from whatever source to technically become a developer. There are huge risks involved in that because they may go bust or liquidity issues may arise in the middle of a build and the building contractor can be left high and dry, often accruing enormous debt. If they are building hundreds of housing units, there could be millions of euro involved. Is there an opportunity for the Department to look at that specific issue and to remove the need for a middleman to bring in a more efficient and effective system of house building? The reason I am pursuing this line of questioning is that my point is very applicable to rural towns and villages.