Mr. Brian O'Gorman:

First, in terms of who our houses are allocated to, it is done through the local authorities. They nominate and we allocate the houses. Ultimately, it is their waiting lists and they choose who is allocated housing. If the applicants are homeless, they get it. It is at the behest of the local authorities. We take 100% nominations.

I would like to throw something back at the politicians. We have been involved in negotiations for many years with local authorities throughout the country and time and again the issue of homelessness and demand continues to arise. We put proposals before politicians, particularly elected members, on short-life housing. Where there is a crisis, as there is in Dublin, and there are large numbers of voids in local authorities we would take that accommodation and bring it up to a standard to allow it be allocated to somebody who is homeless on a licence basis so that when the local authority gets funding to develop a particular scheme, it would be available to go back to the local authority.

This goes nowhere. Whether it is quoted as an industrial relations issue, it simply cannot get past the members on the council floor. They consider it a transfer of responsibility and are not willing to engage with us on that level.