Mr. Barry O'Leary:

Some developments will come out from the Department on shared ownership shortly.

On the question on the hurdles we set, we have two stages in our approval process. If one wants to get into the group that can borrow from us, one must pass the first hurdle. Twenty five have applied and 12 have been successful. We look at the applicant's past, present and future - their past financials, present governance and future plans. Quite frankly, 12 of them were not good enough to be approved or to give us the feeling that we had a good chance of our money being paid back. As a semi-State entity we are supposed to safeguard the assets of the State in the agency. Some of the applicants have gone through the process more than once and have come out successfully at the end of it but we are satisfied that the 12 that have been approved are the best to lend to, and of those 12, seven have borrowed money from us. The others are in the course of developing projects that will allow them to do it.

Of the €180 million we have approved this year, €60 million has been drawn down and 100% of the people who have applied to us for loans have got loans because we have already been satisfied with their set-up. It is not that we have given them a bad offer or failed to give them an offer; everyone who applies for a loan to us will get an offer. As Ms Carroll explained, the cash flow that remunerates those loans comes from a payment and availability agreement. There are fairly predictable cash flows so once somebody shows their ability to manage it, they have a very good chance of getting a loan. We have plenty of funds available with more than €500 million for lending. It is a question of people coming to us and drawing them down.

Compared to last year, we have seen a fourfold increase in our activity this year, reaching €180 million. There is a noticeable increase in AHB activity this year compared to last. It will take time for the building and development parts of the projects to progress to the point where drawdown is necessary. The borrowers draw down money in stages as a project develops and there is plenty of money available. Even if we got rid of the €500 million tomorrow, we could get more money from the EIB, who have made it clear it would give us more money.