Ms Geraldine Tallon:

It worked out quite well. There is a close working relationship between the Department, the housing agency and NAMA with regard to opportunities for the acquisition of social housing units, subject to the capital being available. The backstop is always the question of the amount of money we have for these programmes. At this point, NAMA has identified 3,900 housing units. Approximately 980 of those have been deemed unsuitable by local authorities, generally because they are in areas where local authorities do not have an identified need. Approximately 650 of the 3,900 units have been withdrawn by their owners for a variety of reasons. Some 2,300 units are in the system for examination and for approximately 680 of these local authority demand has been confirmed. At the end of 2012, just over 200 of those houses had been provided to the local government system. A number of them were purchased by local authorities and a number went to approved housing bodies.

The areas in which houses are available for social use vary. They are available in areas such as Dublin, Cork, Galway, Drogheda and Mullingar. They are distributed around the country.