Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I congratulate Deputies Costello and Upton on bringing forward this important motion. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has a reputation for not being too concerned about social housing, therefore, I listened intently when he spoke on this motion last night. There was something familiar about many of the phrases he used such as "integrated approach", "holistic outlook" and "area planning partnership". Then I remembered that many of these phrases were used when I held the position now held by Deputy Finneran, as Minister of State with responsibility for housing. I do not know if the same scriptwriter is there, but certainly the phrases were all the same. However, there was one important difference. In those days partnership meant a partnership between the community and Government, whether it was local government or national Government. It was a new approach in terms of building social cohesion. Now partnership means a PPP. That is about essentially enabling the private sector to come in and very often to make a killing in terms of projects to provide for social need. It also means that the community has essentially been squeezed out of a true partnership arrangement. They are consulted and included——

See this speech in context