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

Hold on a second. The NTMA is charged with investing the National Pensions Reserve Fund in a safe way to protect that money and get some return for the State. What could be safer and better for the economy than investing some of that money in a major direct-build social housing programme or refurbishment of NAMA, houses to make them suitable? This would put people back to work and would be guaranteed to achieve the return. This would be over the medium to long term but the National Pensions Reserve Fund is a medium to long-term fund and is not obliged to make an immediate return. Were the Government to invest now and build a particular number of houses for this number of council tenants, one could quantify exactly how much revenue it would get back. It is guaranteed and in the present situation, in which markets are all over the place and very few investments could be said to be safe, the provision of social housing is a safe investment. The Government would get the money back. While it would not get back massive profits, it would be a steady return that would wash its own face and, once the initial capital costs had been paid back, such a programme would derive additional revenue over the longer term for the State. I simply do not understand the reason the Government will not do this and I am sure the Labour Party-----

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