Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for his attendance. As he knows, the funding mechanism for this project is something called the housing land initiative, which predates the formation of this Government. It is wholly inappropriate for delivering good quality public housing on public land. There is an alternative, which the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, can put on the table straight away. He can meet Dublin City Council management and offer the council exactly the same financing it has already received for the St. Michael's Estate, Inchicore. That would be to secure a European Investment Bank loan for approximately 70% of the financing and to provide the serviced sites funds for the remainder, something he was already going to do for the housing land initiative deal with Glenveagh.

The value of using the St. Michael's Estate model is that we can deliver social rental, affordable cost rental and genuinely affordable purchase homes for working families on this site. It is interesting that the Government parties on Dublin City Council last night voted three ways. The Minister of State's own colleagues did the right thing and they voted against a very bad deal and I genuinely welcome that. Fine Gael councillors, because the land initiative was really their policy framework, voted for it. Fianna Fáil voted three ways: some voted for it, some voted against and some abstained.

I will take the liberty to make a point, given that the Minister of State's party leader and one of the three heads of the Government is sitting beside him, and say to Deputy Eamon Ryan that we have a real chance to get this right if the three Government parties come together and work with the majority of councillors on Dublin City Council and put the St. Michael's Estate funding package in place. Then we can very quickly move towards planning permission by DCC next year and be on-site to commence construction of much-needed social, affordable rental and genuinely affordable homes next year. This can be done, and while I know the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will support the principle of that, we need them to convince their colleagues around the Cabinet table, in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, to work with the majority of councillors in DCC and do the right thing and get the right kind of deal in Oscar Traynor Road.

See this speech in context