Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for coming before the committee. Before I ask a number of general questions, I want to ask Mr. Smith about two or three issues regarding his statement before the committee. On page 3 of his statement, he states: "the Department [has] received the redacted version of the submission from the CSO to Eurostat on 15th January" and that the Department has "[examined] this documentation in detail in order to precisely understand the basis on which the decision was made and assess the full implications of it." At some point, again, given the sensitivities of this, would Mr. Smith be in a position to make his assessment available to the committee? It is important. I acknowledge there is a process, but he might just consider this and give us his view. Further down the page, Mr. Smith tells us that the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, "has signalled [he uses the word "signalled" ] his intention to set up a cross-Departmental, cross-Agency working group" to look at this issue. Mr. Smith might just tell us when this will happen if he knows. He has outlined the kind of people within the Department who may be involved in this. I appeal to him, possibly through the Minister, to pass the message on, respectfully, that the AHB sector should be involved directly in this process. It should not only be a consultee. It is a critical part of the process. Mr. Smith himself acknowledges the sector has a greater understanding. We have heard from representatives of the sector this morning. They have an amazing understanding because they work in this business all the time. I therefore ask that the Minister, perhaps through a conversation with Mr. Smith, consider appointing a member of the AHB, nominating someone from that sector to sit on this cross-party group. We also need a timeframe for this. That is urgent. It is interesting that one of the remits of this committee, as I understand it, is to assess fully the potential impact on the 50,000 new houses to be built under Rebuilding Ireland. That is what Mr. Smith's opening statement tells us. Page 4 tells us, "Minister Murphy has communicated to both the local authorities and the AHB sector that this accounting issue will not affect his ambitious plans under Rebuilding Ireland." On page 3 we are told there is an objective for the committee to examine its impact on the reclassification, and on page 4 we are assured by the Minister that it will not have an impact. These are very different views. I ask Mr. Smith to address this in his response.

I now move to my general questions for all the witnesses. I will read them out in the order in which I have them written down. First, can the witnesses explain why EUROSTAT chose Ireland over and above any other country? We saw earlier in papers that were presented to us comparisons with other parts of Europe. I ask the witnesses to talk to us about this. Second, what effect does the Department believe the reclassification will have on the AHBs securing finance into the future? Third, when did the Department first become aware of the possibility of the AHBs being brought on balance sheet, and what steps have been taken for this eventuality? To wrap up, one of the most important matters is the local government auditing service. The local government auditing service published a report, No. 29, on the oversight role of local authorities in the provision of social housing by approved housing bodies in December 2015. The report made 13 recommendations regarding the AHB sector. Can the Department or anyone else here provide an update on these 13 recommendations? I know we are short for time but I ask the witnesses to give us a commitment to look at this and come back to the committee with some kind of written response. I would be very interested in looking at the follow-up to these 13 recommendations.