Mr. Michael Layde:

As the Secretary General and the Deputy have said, the importance of the voluntary sector is growing. In 2011, the Government recognised in its housing policy statement that the role of the not-for-profit sector, as it is increasingly referred to, would grow and intensify in the years to come. It is clear in that context that there is a need to look at the regulation of the sector. Deputy Nash mentioned that there is a multiplicity of bodies of this nature. The total number is approximately 500. As the Secretary General has said, they vary in size from the very small and localised bodies to the handful of bodies that are essentially operating on a not-for-profit commercial footing. The regulatory structure we are devising for them is based on the principle that one size does not fit all. We are working on a light-touch regulatory system for housing bodies in the middle tier, some of which are essentially community groups but nonetheless receive public funding from time to time. The housing bodies in the upper tier, which operate on a reasonably large scale, are probably those of the most interest. The number of such bodies in Ireland is very modest by comparison to the number of equivalent bodies in other countries. There is some potential for growth of the sector here. The larger bodies receive significant amounts of public moneys. We introduced a voluntary code as a precursor to putting the regulation of the sector on a statutory footing. The interim regulatory structure is housed in the housing agency, which is independent of the Department. Bodies are signing up to that voluntarily. As the Secretary General said, the intention is that during the course of next year, legislation will be introduced to provide for the new statutory arrangement that will come into force in 2016 and will be in line with best practice in other jurisdictions.