Mr. John Knox:

Let me clarify the timeline. The Government published their social housing strategy in 2014 and we published our response to its request for funding from credit unions a year later in October 2015. It is not exactly two years but it is a year in which no substantive progress has been made. We mentioned that in our opening address. In the first from November 2014 to October 2015, there was very good engagement with the relevant Departments and that helped greatly in preparing our proposal. The frustration that was referenced in our opening address comes from the lack of progress since October 2015. We have had numerous meetings and the barrier at this stage seems to be mainly around the fund being on or off balance sheet and there is no solution to that yet. No decision has been made in that regard as yet. That is where our frustration stems from. We are still awaiting a fund that we can invest in. It looks difficult for the Government to create any type of fund without it being off balance sheet. We appreciate and understand that. Likewise we welcome the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney meeting the credit unions in Cork, stating that housing is a priority of the Government and we really hope to see that being acted upon and moved along as speedily as possible. We mentioned the lack of progress on that front. We would like to create our own fund but the difficulty around that remains that the Central Bank would have to approve credit unions to be allowed to invest in that fund or in any other fund in regard to social housing. As it currently stands the Central Bank prescribes a list of investments that credit unions can invest in but that list does not allow for investment in social housing. We would need to change the Central Bank regulations as well.