Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

Or perhaps someone else's. We have been quite upfront about this. Complaints were made to the Competition Authority about NAMA hotels. We met the Competition Authority and provided it with all the information it wanted and it then pursued the case. We were able to prove to it that we do not support hotels that are not sustainable. They have to wash their own face. Sometimes the most difficult case is where that is not happening for whatever reason. When we inherited it in 2010, we thought the hotel sector would a massive problem. Certainly in the past year with the increase in tourism, because it is a function of volume, occupancy rates are much improved from where they were in 2010. Mr. Hanna will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe they are now running at between 60% and 70%. Once they get through a certain amount, they actually recover their costs. I hope that deals with that.

Deputy McNamara asked about the 10,000 units for social housing. The majority of them are rented through the private sector. We have agreed to conduct analysis and come back to the committee, breaking out the detail of the portfolio. As houses become available, we add them to the list, as I said to Senator Hayden. This year we have added another 300 since the 1,500 we did in June. Once they become available, we ask if they are suitable for that. The Deputy asked why they were rejected by the local authority.