Mr. Bob Jordan:

The Deputy asked a very good question regarding NAMA. The focus has been on social housing provision. Approximately 1,500 NAMA properties have been identified by local authorities but only 400 have come on stream so far. The process is very slow. The more important issue regarding NAMA is the fact that it is now one of the biggest landlords in the country. It has 10,000 properties rented out. How many of those, if any, are available for people in need of social housing support? We really need to get to the bottom of that because we need to ring-fence that accommodation. Deputy Doherty asked about the priority for those who are homeless. The priority is to have ring-fenced housing for people to come out of homelessness. At the moment, the only mechanism available is the rent supplement scheme and homeless people, like everybody else, have to bat within the rent supplement limits. It seems preposterous that an extra €50 per month could move somebody permanently out of homelessness but we are still stuck with these limits. That is the answer in that context, but NAMA has not answered the question about the social dividend. It is treating the State as a commercial customer but that is not what the original legislation intended.