Mr. Ed Farrell:

We launched a proposal we had at that time following on from the initial social housing strategy proposed by the then Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, at the end of 2014. The Minister who succeeded him, Deputy Coveney, updated it in July 2016. Our proposal came on foot of those two requests from Government about credit unions and other private or non-typical funding sources being required for social housing. Following the launch of the proposal, we presented to the committee at the time. We outlined where we needed help from two arms of the State, one being the Central Bank, to change the rules on the investments credit unions could hold and then when the rules were changed we would need the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to push forward with the fund it had been talking about. We have made good progress on the rules laid down for credit unions by the Central Bank. They were opened to a public consultation last May and that closed in June. In the run-up to Christmas and early in the new year, we have been over and back to the Central Bank and it looks like it is going to relax the rules.

It is opening the door very little but it is progress and it will allow an initial project for a tranche of money from credit unions to be made available to approved housing bodies for the first time. It looks life half of it is starting and the other half is for the Government to push on and create the vehicle into which those approved housing bodies can borrow from the State fund, as it were, which was outlined in the reports by the previous Ministers, Deputy Kelly, and Deputy Coveney. We are actively engaged with the Departments of Finance and Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Irish Council for Social Housing, which is the apex body for the approved housing bodies, to try to complete that part of the equation in order to allow the investment of a modest amount of funding. It would act as a template or trial project. A lot has been done but there is just a little bit more to do to get the fund up and running.