Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

noting the collapse of five public private partnerships agreements in Dublin city, namely, St Michael's Estate, Inchicore, Dublin 8, O'Devaney Gardens and Infirmary Road, Dublin 7, and Dominick Street and Sean McDermott Street, Dublin 1;

noting that a single developer, Michael McNamara and Company, was selected as the preferred bidder for all five projects with Dublin City Council, which are estimated at €1 billion;

noting that the same developer abandoned plans for the regeneration of Finglas village, Dublin 11, last week;

concerned that the housing lists in Dublin have grown steadily despite the construction boom of the past 15 years;

concerned that Dublin City Council has had to close its affordable housing list which exceeded 8,000 earlier this year because of its inability to cope with the growing list;

concerned that hundreds of families awaiting new homes and community facilities now have their hopes dashed; and

concerned that the public private partnership mechanism has provided no risk or penalty to the private developer while the local authority is left to pick up the pieces;

calls on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government:

to take whatever steps are necessary to remove the developer from the five projects;

to ensure that in future developers are not allowed to walk away from commitments entered into under public private partnership arrangements without appropriate sanction;

to take direct responsibility for funding and delivering the five long-awaited social and affordable housing projects;

to meet the residents to reassure them of the Government's commitment and good faith; and

determines to review the State Authorities (Public Private Partnership Arrangements) Act 2002 with a view to ensuring that the public interest is protected in future public private partnership agreements.

I wish to share time with Deputies Upton and Ó Snodaigh.

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