Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I note that approximately one fifth of centrally sourced funds went into housing and urban regeneration. Do the witnesses have any idea of what proportion of centrally sourced funding went on housing during the boom? Clearly a new view is emerging from the Department and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing that there is a range of different ways in which local authorities can provide adequate long-term housing, including, for example, long-term leasing, the rental accommodation scheme and so forth. It would appear the Department and local authorities are disengaging from the direct provision of social housing units and are doing more work with the voluntary housing agencies. How does the provision of housing funding now compare with six or seven years ago? What sort of reduction have we seen?