Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

That sounds good. However, I may stand to be corrected but that does not seem to be the situation. As I understand it, it is proposed to lease the NAMA properties from the developers. These are developers who are bankrupt and whom we are bankrolling. Why not just transfer the houses, once it has been ascertained that these are up to standard, directly into the hands of the local authorities and cut out the developers so that the rental revenue accrues directly to the State? The cost of leasing from these private developers would be saved. I do not understand why this appears to be the policy as enunciated in June of this year by the Government. It says it is abandoning direct build, probably on the grounds that it does not have the money. This, however, is an investment which guarantees a return in the form of the rental revenue. It will pay for itself over the long term, both in terms of the money saved from not having to fork out rent allowance payments to private landlords and the rental revenue that will accrue. Even the troika could see the logic of that. I do not understand why the Government will not move in that direction, not to mention the jobs which would be created.

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