Dr. Donal McManus:

I am happy to address Deputy Daly's comments. In essence, the housing associations were here before the formation of the State. The Iveagh Trust in Dublin was one of the earliest initiatives in voluntary housing for working class people in Dublin. It provided social housing prior to the local authority doing so. The latter played a strong role from the 1920s onwards. Housing associations, not just in Ireland but throughout the European Union, predate public authorities which are very generic and do many things, including housing, planning, finance and so forth. Housing associations in Ireland and many other countries are dedicated to housing management and provision. That is their sole focus.

The added value provided by housing associations is that they have a long-term commitment to the provision of rental housing in the areas in which they operate, as well as to the provision of supports. Local authorities do not have a focus on providing supports. What is needed is both housing and support services, whether for homeless people, the elderly or people with disabilities. Initially housing associations after the 1920s would have been in a niche area, providing for special needs groups. Such groups were well catered for in this way because the local authorities at that time would not have had the strands of expertise to provide for such client groups. In this context, one is not just talking about bricks and mortar. One is also talking about support services.

On the question of the scale of housing associations, there are three classifications, namely, tiers 1, 2 and 3. The majority of the 30,000 homes are managed by approximately 15 larger housing associations in the so-called tier 3 group. There are approximately 180 smaller housing associations in the tier 1 group. They do not have any staff. Most of those associations are voluntary and started from the ground up. They may have obtained sites from local parish councils, received funding through the capital assistance scheme, which was mentioned by Deputy Harty, and provided housing. They would not have staff in place although they would have boards. One of the biggest challenges we have been dealing with in recent years is in trying to consolidate some of those associations. Some of the older board members have moved on and we are trying to get a structure in place to help to consolidate the sector. That has happened to some degree in that there have been a number of mergers of smaller voluntary housing associations. Many of them do not have any staff at all. They may have caretakers but there are no chief executive officers, directors of finance and so forth. Such staff operate in the tier 3 housing associations. I can obtain the figures from the regulation office on how many people are employed in the tier three associations. That is where the bulk of the staff in the sector are employed, as finance directors, chief executive officers and so forth. The small voluntary organisations would not have the rental income-----