Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Daly said earlier that repaying the debt was NAMA's top priority.

I do not need to remind him that is not what the NAMA Act says. The Act gives NAMA a number of tasks. Section 2(b)(viii) of the Act talks about contributing "to the social and economic development of the State". Mr. Daly went on to say that in his view, repaying the debt is the best social dividend. I would have thought that at a time when the economy is growing and the debt-to-GDP ratio in general is falling, we should calculate the best social dividend by reference to the more clear social requirement to do more to tackle the housing crisis in addition to the need to repay the debt. I say that because, as we have seen today, 6,000 people are now homeless. According to figures released by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government today, 2,000 children are homeless.

I will come to my questions in a second. I acknowledge that NAMA has played a role in increasing social housing stock in the State but my concern is that much of the work it has done has, in the main, been driven more by commercial calculations to the detriment of a crucial part of its legislative remit. For example, we have heard a lot of talk about how NAMA has offered 6,700 units for social housing. I would hate the message to go out from here today that local authorities are somehow refusing units. People seem to forget that central government places enormous constraints on what local authorities can accept when NAMA presents properties. I will give an example. NAMA proposed to present 591 units to South Dublin County Council but almost 500 of them were in one location. Central government policy under the last Government and the current Government does not allow local authorities to buy 500 units in a single location. Even if a council wanted to do so, it would be constrained by central government policy. Many of these units were offered in 2011 and 2012. Not only was tenure mix a constraint from central government but location, cost and the availability of resources were also issues at a time when central government funding of local authorities was at its lowest.

I think we should explore this and I think people are right to ask these questions. I am reminded of a headline in yesterday's Irish Examinerthat criticised local authorities for not spending their capital allocations. Nobody is mentioning that the procurement and tendering process insisted on by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform takes a year and a half. It is not as if local authorities are sitting there, not spending money. I make that point because I think the debate needs some balance.