Dr. Michelle Norris:

I wish to answer the question on outsourcing. The contract awarded to EC Harris to advise us on assessing credit applications from the voluntary housing sector was put out to competitive tender. The consultants we engaged have a strong record of advising the United Kingdom regulator of housing associations. When we were devising our system for assessing housing associations we drew on international best practice in the area from throughout the European Union. In Ireland until the mid-1980s we funded housing mainly by borrowing. Then during the last fiscal crisis the Government moved away from that system towards capital grants and until recently most social housing has been funded by capital grants. We do not have the experience within the sector of managing loan finance or of regulating organisations funded by loan finance whereas there is a good deal of such experience in other European countries. This is the main method used to fund social housing throughout western Europe. We believe there is significant expertise available internationally on which we should draw and the awarding of the contract reflects that. This was not the tradition in Ireland but it was internationally.