Mr. Cian Ó Lionáin:

In terms of the overall approach to regulation, there are two focuses. First, the regulation of the approved housing bodies, AHBs, gives them the capacity to grow and meet future needs. Second, the landlord-tenant relationship is regulated. Mr. O'Gorman referred to the future role of the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, in that regard. Deputy Stanley asked whether the PRTB had the capacity to do this. It has approximately 265,000 tenancies. We estimate that approximately 20,000 additional tenancies will initially fall under what will be known as the RTB. While this will present an additional challenge for the PRTB, the Department is of the opinion that the PRTB can meet it by boxing clever, which is what the PRTB has been doing in recent years. It has lost all of its contract staff and its core numbers have declined. It has engaged in an extensive process of outsourcing and of focusing on its core business. For example, its telephony is no longer handled in-house and has been contracted out.

Tenancies within the AHB sector are typically much more stable than those in the private rented sector. The AHB and the tenant want the relationship to work in the long term. In the private sector, tenancies are typically of shorter duration. Figures from the PRTB show an average of one and a quarter years. It is a different cohort.

As to regulation, governance and giving bodies the capacity to develop and access private finance, Ireland is trying to do in three to five years what other jurisdictions did in 20 years. In England, for instance, funding to housing associations went from approximately 90% to 20% in 15 years. In Ireland, we have gone from 100% to less than 30% in two or three years. This is a dramatic change. We are trying to put in place the building blocks that will give external potential lenders to the sector the confidence that individual organisations will not fail, that there will be a long-term plan to remedy any weakness and that the sector is a good long-term investment opportunity. Given the way in which the Irish housing association system is structured, it is a sound investment opportunity. Mortgage agreements go into decades. This is the type of low-risk investment that private finance will find attractive. Initially, we must put the system in place.

We will have a voluntary system for the next two years because we do not want to leap into fully fledged statutory regulation without knowing exactly what we are getting into. For this reason, the AHB sector has engaged in a process lasting one and a half years to define the key areas for regulation and the key metrics. The Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, has given a commitment in this regard. In her view, this needs to be a credible, autonomous and independent process. Resourcing must be addressed. In the short term, phasing in the voluntary code allows the Department and the sector to work hand in glove to define the best regulatory approach for the next few decades.