Mr. Barry O'Leary:

We have plenty of money and it is cheap money. Deputy Cowen raised certain matters but I do not want to get involved in the tenant purchase debate at all. We are a small specialist agency. Mr. Cremin raises the money cheaply and we lend it cheaply. We fund schemes the Department has brought in so developments in the area of tenant purchase are probably safest left alone for the moment. The Department's focus is primarily on supplying houses to people. If they are housed in ABH houses, worrying about buying those houses later on is another issue.

We were asked what the HFA could do in connection with the adaptation of homes. There is probably a role for the HFA in this. Lending to local authorities is particularly cheap at the moment as the EIB will give us fixed rate money for 25 years at approximately 1.5%. We could lend that to the local authorities without big margins because we do not need big margins. It would cost very little to service €1 million on a day-to-day basis so if the local authorities have the clearance from Government to borrow money, there is a cheap way of delivering it. There is some cost benefit in adapting homes and leaving people in homes rather than the alternatives which are quite expensive. EIB money is available for retrofitting houses so it is a reasonably good fit. There is an overall restriction, from which all local authorities are suffering at the moment, in that the Government's borrowing restrictions prevent them from borrowing a lot of money to increase the Government deficit but that is another issue. If one balances the benefits of borrowing at cheaper rates, and servicing the borrowing at cheap rates, against the other costs that flow from that, somebody could draw the right conclusion but we would be happy to play a role as there is easy money available to lend.