Mr. Kieron Brennan:

I will respond to a few points. With regard to the over-reliance on our sector, it should be borne in mind that social housing accounts for 10% of housing overall while AHB-owned or managed social housing accounts, in turn, for 10% of that. Overall, it has to be acknowledged that we are a small player in the housing market. We are not threatening any other part of the sector, unfortunately. We need everybody firing on all cylinders to produce as many social houses as possible. I include the private sector, the public sector and ourselves in that. We all need to play our part. The over-reliance has been, and continues to be, on the private sector. We have relied too much on this sector to produce. As Mr. McManus and Mr. O'Gorman said, the State has earmarked one third of its social housing provision for AHBs. The largest portion of it will be constructed by the private sector via HAP and other interventions such as the recently launched enhanced leasing scheme. While welcome, as we all want to increasing the overall stock of social housing, that is a concern.

The Deputy is correct about the issue of tenant purchase. It is not part of our make-up. Co-operative Housing Ireland is a co-operative body, which is owned and controlled by its members. They determine our policy. However, our AHB brethren share the view that it is difficult for us to put social housing in place. When we do - and it is with State support in many cases - we want to do that in perpetuity. We want to create those units in order that they are continually available and can be rolled over again and again. As Mr. Clayton said, his housing units have been rolled over for 128 years. The committee should reflect on the social value of that. We found when we entered this crisis in 2008 that, unfortunately, social housing stock had been reduced in the preceding years and we were caught short. We should not want to do that again.

It is worth challenging this recommendation because the State needs complementary funding to be brought into the equation. One of the vehicles through which that could be done is the AHB sector. We are less attractive when we are on-balance sheet. The rationale for using AHBs is undermined if we remain on-balance sheet. Surely, we should try to bring as much resource into the equation as we can with the private sector doing its bit, external investment in AHBs and the State funding as much social housing as possible. If we do not challenge and manage to reverse the recommendation, the overall resources available to deal with the social housing crisis will be reduced.