Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

——but as soon as the players start to play rough, the community are isolated and they are powerless. That is the reality.

This is an ideological issue. It is not about good housing management. We have many examples of where good area planning and mixed developments produced the right result. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle will remember when he was Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government successful projects were begun during that time in which we can all take pride. There is a place for PPPs, but it certainly is not the inflated place it is now and we simply cannot afford to have cases arise where people's lives are being blighted because of ideology. It is a matter of concern.

One depends, perhaps erroneously, on the Green Party to bring something new to Government. That is what it promised when it came into Government. The speech that I heard the Minister, Deputy Gormley, give last night was essentially to the effect of it being business as usual, that it was a pity this happened but that we were certainly not going to change our ways.

Separate from the issue of PPPs, there are other problems arising as a result of changes within the Department that I presume have flowed from the Minister, Deputy Gormley's new tenure. For example, there now appears to be some bureaucratic stranglehold on housing developments and projects coming on stream. Difficulties have arisen in regard to the carrying out of small-scale refurbishment projects. Progression of a small refurbishment scheme in Little Bray in my constituency has come to a complete stop. People's sense of isolation and bewilderment with regard to these big projects in Dublin also applies to people's expectations in regard to small projects.

This fixation about PPPs has led to an extreme example, again in my constituency, of how matters can go wrong. The heart of the town of Bray has been blighted because of a PPP that has never been realised. We waited for the project to commence for 14 years and at the end of this month the council will have to make a decision to take back lands. If that is not enough to get the Government on to a new track, it is difficult to accept that any sense is being taken of what is happening on the ground.

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