The Workers’ Party has called on the government to take over the five housing developments in Dublin which have been abandoned by developers after a decline in predicted profit margins.

Workers’ Party representative Andrew McGuinness said that the Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme nationally had been holed below the waterline because without guaranteed profits the private sector investors had no interest in the provision of public housing, or for that matter any public service.

“Without profits the PPP investors have flown south as surely as the swallows will fly south this Autumn”, said Mr. McGuinness who went on to warn that other PPP projects were doomed to collapse if the economy suffered any further setbacks.  “This will not just include housing projects but also schools, hospitals and power stations being built under the so-called Public Private Partnership scheme”, he warned.

Mr. McGuinness said that the government had seen the Public Private Partnership as its saviour to relieve it of the cost of building public projects and to satisfy its old friends in the construction industry.  “The private element of the Public Private Partnership scheme is like a flock of vultures feeding on the rich pickings of the Celtic Tiger which Irish workers created but now that the carcass is bare the vultures are flying away engorged and leaving the bare bones behind”

Mr. McGuinness called on the government, through the local authorities, to step in and complete the abandoned projects and to cancel other PPP developments in the pipeline.  “Big business will always put itself first and cares little about people on housing lists.  Profits are its only idol”, said Andrew McGuinness.

20th May 2008