Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As part of the review, we are trying to find the balance and determine the best approach. The review is almost complete. It involves discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with which I had a number of engagements on the matter prior to the end of last year. We are close to finalising what the new scheme will look like. Some people will be happy with the new scheme and some will not. That is the nature of things when they are reviewed. I want to be careful about how we manage this. At its centre, obviously, will be the aspiration for home ownership. That must be in the scheme. At the same time, we must be mindful of managing local authority stock at a time when it is low and we are trying to increase it. We must be cognisant of the costs foregone by the State also and of the fact that, unfortunately, there are some people who might take advantage of the scheme. We are trying to square those pieces while at the same time not having people in unfair situations who are good tenants who have lived in a home which they are now in a position to buy. I would like to get that published as soon as possible. We have been finalising and publishing a lot of material over recent weeks, but this is one of the next things we want to move to.

The Housing Agency and the accountability for the €70 million in capital were raised. The Housing Agency is accountable to me and I am accountable to the committee. We have published numbers on what they have been doing on securing some of these homes and selling them on to approved housing bodies. There are a number of potential portfolios becoming available and I have told the Housing Agency to go for them and not to wait to secure them; to get them assessed and to take what is suitable. We are doing that piece of work at the moment. The repair and lease scheme was raised by Deputy Casey, but I did not get a chance to answer him on some of the reforms we have brought in. There are still concerns about some of the conditions. In fact, one of Senator Murnane O'Connor’s colleagues, Senator Coffey, visited one of what are unfortunately very few repair and lease schemes. This was in Waterford city. He saw how it had worked and how the individual had been able to get involved. Only seven or eight were completed last year, which is very disappointing when one looks at the target we had. However, there were hundreds of applications of interest and more than 200 have been assessed. As we move through, it begins to come down to potential agreements. However, the Senator is right about difficulties in the scheme and the length of time it is taking. I am running out of time but when I come back to Deputy Casey, I might go through some of the changes we announced at the summit on Monday and which we will announce more publicly today.