Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I have asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to provide me with a report on this matter arising from yesterday's developments. I will answer Deputy Gilmore's questions to the best of my ability. I acknowledge that this is a setback for those communities who have been working hard in conjunction with the city council to devise regeneration plans for their areas. These are areas where we would like to see improvements and regeneration take place.

Following the withdrawal of the developer from the public private partnership projects in question, I understand members of the regeneration board had a meeting with city council officials yesterday. Despite this setback, there is a continuing commitment on the part of the council to prioritise the prospect of regeneration for these communities. This may involve approaching other developers who have indicated an interest in participating in public private partnership. The public private partnership contracts with the developer are not available to me and I am not in a position to answer questions about the details of those contracts. However, I will seek to find some information on this for the Deputy.

The Deputy referred to the detenanting that has taken place in these areas. The need to provide housing for these people as quickly as possible, whether through a reactivation of the public private partnership process in conjunction with a different developer or via a phased development based on a more traditional procurement method, is a priority for the city council. That is a matter for consideration by Dublin City Council officials as they seek to assess where they go from here and decide the next steps in dealing with this setback.

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