Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)

The Minister did not answer how many value for money assessments were undertaken before the final decision was made. How was it let get to this point where he now says it is too expensive? Public-private partnerships involve lifetime maintenance costs and not just the delivery cost. I have been heavily critical of this model of delivery of social housing. The Minister still has not answered the question: is this the end of PPPs for future bundles? Up to 3,000 homes were planned to be delivered through PPPs. What is the Department’s plan for those? Are they now scrapped as public-private partnerships? Will they be delivered by new ways? If so, will the original timeframe be maintained? Will Dublin City Council and local authorities in counties Wicklow, Sligo and Louth, which were due to deliver through PPPs, be allocated the funding to deliver them through direct build, as should have been the case originally?

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