Ms Karen Murphy:

I want to make a brief point on the over-reliance on AHBs and the perception that appears to be there generally. There are recommendations from the CSO and EUROSTAT but things are presented in a very unbalanced way. The policy of Rebuilding Ireland is to place AHBs at the centre of delivering social housing. We need to challenge that. Rebuilding Ireland has a target of almost 140,000 units but only 15,000 will come from AHBs, double that from local authorities. Over 80,000 units will come from the private sector. That is presented in the CSO documentation in a very unbalanced way and we should challenge that. The Government is facing a crisis in delivering social housing and it is right to try to use every tool at its disposal to meet the needs of people. AHBs are an important part of that, but they are not the only solution.