Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

To deal with the matters that he raised, the question of the surplus housing stock we have and the need for long term leasing is an initiative that the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, has brought forward and that will require the full co-operation of all of the housing departments of local authorities to ensure that, rather than the traditional way of constructing housing, we have the houses available that we need to acquire. There is a lot of acquisition of housing going on. As the Deputy knows, there are different means by which councils obtain housing to meet requirements. This is to be welcomed. It is not simply the old traditional construction method.

There are also important sectors of the housing sector where special arrangements need to be made. For example, I very much welcome the fact that this year, over 1,000 units will be built for people with disabilities throughout local authorities in Ireland. This is an important initiative that the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, has championed. It is a very good initiative.

On the question of regeneration as I understand it, while everyone is clearly disappointed that the PPPs were not proceeded with at that time - they were dealt with and debated in the House at the time - the Minister of State was very active with Dublin City Council and the other local authorities in Dublin, which remain committed to proceeding with these projects. Clearly, the PPP model provided the best and fastest means for providing them rather than by their being exclusively Exchequer funded. However, the councils remain committed to all of those projects and are working through those issues as best they can with the resources that are available. It is not a question of whether something in Dublin or Limerick is not proceeding. It is a question of trying to ensure that we can get some private sector buy-in in addition to the commitments that we are making, for example, in Limerick this year, a total of €25 million.

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