Sinn Féin is urging the Government to deliver social homes quickly.

The party's housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin TD, raised concerns at the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and said it is not the best method to deliver homes efficiently and with value for money for the taxpayer.

He said: "A report by the European Court Of Auditors has outlined a number of difficulties with the PPP model for the delivery of public projects; namely, around issues including insufficient competition for contracting authorities, procurement delays, project cost increases and failure to demonstrate value for money.

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"Sinn Féin raised similar concerns a year ago when the then-Minister for Housing Simon Coveney was outlining his plans to eventually deliver 1,500 houses across Dublin and the neighbouring counties of Louth, Wicklow, and Kildare via the PPP model.

"In a submission to the Department of Housing on that issue, Sinn Féin raised a number of matters including lack of transparency in the setting of the public sector benchmark.

"One of the key recommendations of the European Auditors report is to 'base the selection of the PPP option on sound comparative analyses on the best procurement option'.

"We also suggested that the Oireachtas Housing and Public Accounts Committees should be given a joint role to fully scrutinise the project to provide an additional layer of public oversight over the progression of these projects."

(CD/LM)