Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have a closed mind. I find it difficult to believe that local authorities would be able to manage projects more efficiently than a competitive tendering process where a project goes to market and the person who produces the best and lowest cost proposal will be awarded the contract. Local authorities should be involved in the management of the process. By and large, however, the likelihood is that they will tender in order to try to get the best value, design and so on.

We should not forget that local authorities have not built many houses for quite some time. In terms of building up expertise and teams of architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and so on, they will be under a lot of pressure to get social housing projects built on time without taking on a lot of extra staff. If there are exceptions to that, if there is a good case being made, if chief executives think it is a good idea and if they are supported by councillors, we will consider the proposals so long as they are not a contravention of competition law.

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