Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 April 2026
572. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 1066 of 18 March 2026, the grounds upon which he feels unable to provide the figure requested for the value of sponsorship received; and the criteria by which he deems this figure to be 'commercially sensitive' [28253/26]
View answerUnder Delivering Homes, Building Communities, my Department, in partnership with other key Government Departments and agencies, is leading a co-ordinated programme of stakeholder engagement on the role of private capital, including institutional investment, in supporting additional housing supply.
In this regard, the Irish Government led the coordination of a national presence at Marché International des Professionels de l'Immoblier (MIPIM) 2026, one of the world’s leading real estate and investment forums which took place in Cannes, France from 9 to 12 March. The key aim of Ireland at MIPIM 2026 was to establish a presence at the conference to compete with other countries and cities for a limited supply of international capital which is crucial to fund increased supply of new housing in Ireland.
In line with how other countries and cities fund their attendance at MIPIM, private sector sponsors covered the financial cost to Ireland at MIPIM 2026 in terms of the Ireland pavilion and the associated organisational supports. No Exchequer funding was involved in this element of MIPIM.
The sponsors were coordinated through two key representative bodies, Irish Institutional Property (IIP) and Property Industry Ireland (PII) alongside an event management company who managed the interface with the MIPIM organisers, the construction and fitting out of the pavilion, event project management, branding, website design and so forth.
An inter-departmental working group, led by my Department, organised the public sector input into Ireland at MIPIM 2026 including the interfacing between the public and private sectors, and the coordination of the event programme as delivered across both sectors.
Given that the costs incurred by private sector sponsors of Ireland at MIPIM 2026 are subject to competitive procurement by those organising pavilions at MIPIM, the value of that sponsorship is not being released on the basis of commercial sensitivity as outlined in section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act 2014. My Department considers this information as commercially sensitive due to the potential of prejudicing any future contracting or procurement of a MIPIM pavilion with reference to Section 36(1)(c) of the Act.
