Mr. John O'Connor:

What is being introduced into the Bill as a consequence of the Shackleton judgment, is a number of definitions to bring clarity. The local authority has to pay the construction costs of the houses and the cost of the land is a nominal figure based on the existing use value. The definitions have been amended to clarify the exact payments and reduce the number of disputes. The local authorities either get capital funding to buy the houses and there is funding in place whereby voluntary housing bodies can be funded on a long-term basis to acquire housing. There is no difficulty at present in the funding of the acquisition of housing either by the local authority or by a voluntary housing body. The funding is in place.