Mr. Barry O'Leary:

Some measures are being developed at the moment between the Department and a number of stakeholders but we have been involved in changing the way a shared ownership loan was financed. The loans were originally drawn up in the early 1980s and were index linked. We paid back the bonds earlier this year so we can offer the ability for local authorities to switch the shared ownership element of the loan to a variable rate loan at those lower rates. Half of the shared ownership loan was essentially renting a house and people at the end of a renting period do not expect to own a house. If they want to own a house they need to buy it out.