Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a classic example. I was involved in a voluntary housing body that was set up specifically to provide 100 houses or whatever the case may be.

We had to buy the sites from the local authority for €20,000 each. The voluntary agencies got the sites for free. That is competition. We were doing the same job, but we were doing it for the people to acquire their own homes.

The local authority gets a sum in respect of maintenance or whatever the case may be, but so do the housing bodies. I do not want to be in any way pejorative about this. It is a fact of life that the two are competing and the model has failed. However, more importantly, the capital allowance scheme provides for 100% capital funding - 100% for the site, 100% for the loan to build the houses and a grant thereafter for the maintenance of the houses. I could go on, but I will not, as the Chairman will be glad to know.

I said the voluntary agencies are better equipped to deal with special needs and sheltered housing than anybody else, but they are not the proper vehicle to provide the volume of housing that is required through the local authority system. That is why in the 1980s we did not have a problem. It was as a result of the changeover that we now have the problem we have.