Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is my slot now. The key to building houses is infrastructure. There are areas that for more than 40 years have not received any infrastructure to allow for development. Dr. O'Brien made a comment on the smaller contractors. I will put on record that I am one of those small contractors. I have more than 35 years' experience. I will also put on record that I do not do Government contracts; I never have. I have no intention of doing that but I know an awful lot of contractors and developers throughout this country would deliver infrastructure, if the parameters around pricing for the infrastructure were changed. We have so few contractors that can provide infrastructure because of the mechanism for them to price it. Any contract shows they have to have done a job of more than €2 million to first get on the tendering process, even though these are the same contractors subbed in to do the work for the main contractors, which limits the number of contractors that can price work and have value for money. What we have in this country is a lot of subcontractors that are contracted in. They are doing all the work for the main contractors. There may only be four or five in the country that can price the work for the Government, so they have a monopoly on delivering infrastructure. We need to change the criteria to make sure that the same people who are doing Government contracts under a main contractor can put in a price to put in infrastructure.

If we want to build houses in this country, we also need to look at serviced sites. Limerick Twenty Thirty looked at this in respect of a site at Mungret. It was going to deliver a serviced site that would allow small contractors come in. They would have an outline planning permission on the sites and would agree the design of their houses with the local authority but the sites would be serviced. That is developer-led infrastructure. In this country, we have Irish Water, which is not fit for purpose. I have said this on the record of the Dáil and I am saying it here at committee. It is not fit for purpose on the basis of it not having delivered one project on time or within budget. If any person ran his or her business and were not on budget or on time, that individual would not be in business. I have no problem with people delivering the infrastructure, then giving it to Irish Water and saying they have now built it to the standards Irish Water wants it built. That could be overseen as it is being done. The engineers are there within the local authorities to oversee it. The system could then be run and given to contractors to deliver infrastructure on budget and on time. That is how we will change the numbers from a projected 32,500 up to 35,000. That is from a person with life experience who has been in business for more than 35 years. That is how we will deliver. This is from being an employer working with subcontractors that have been contracted on major buildings in this country. It is from the experience of a person with a business background knowing that if you are not on budget, you are out of business. What we need to deliver infrastructure in this country is accountability, to build on budget and to build on time. From the Central Bank's position, what could it do to look at the smaller contractors, which are doing the work anyway, to allow them bring competition to the market to deliver infrastructure?

Second, we looked at all the different types of housing and models built. I deliver all of them so I have experience of this. A comment was made that we need to be upskilled. We do not need to be upskilled. We build houses and developments every day. I deal with modular and timber-frame houses and with metal structures. Everything we deliver, we deliver, but they are delivered under a main contractor. The skills and technology are there. It is at our fingertips. We have the technology to deliver. What we have got are Departments working against us to stop us bringing in competition to the market, where four or five contractors have control of projects, even though the same contractors I am talking about deliver the projects.

Why can the Departments not work with us? If they do, we will deliver the projects and houses for them on budget and on time. It could then be left to those concerned to run the infrastructure, and then it might be possible to meet the targets. Could somebody comment on that please?