Professor Michelle Norris:

Yes. I think there are only two issues. The first is the proposal for the deduction of rent from social welfare payments. That is really to address the issue affecting local authorities whereby, on the one hand, they have very high rates of collection but, on the other, they find arrears very demanding or impossible to deal with, and they are loath to seek possession of the dwelling in the courts. That is the reason for the proposal.

In regard to Deputy O'Brien's question around trying to fund an off-balance sheet model for the provision of social housing or council housing, there are two issues that need to be taken into account in a plan of that type. The first is the source of the investment. The Deputy mentioned the Central Bank has approved funding from the credit unions, which would certainly be a non-State source of investment, so it would fulfil that side of the equation. The second issue is the source of revenue. One would need a situation where less than 50% of the revenue is coming from Government, and cost rents would be a way of achieving that, particularly if council housing was let in a way that took account of the need to have financial sustainability of the estates, not just having this based solely on need. At the moment the income limits for access to social housing cover people at the lower end of medium earnings but, in practice, because there is such a long waiting list for council housing, the vast majority of people getting allocations are people on social welfare. As several people have pointed out, that is quite different from the position a number of years ago. If dwellings were let to a mix of people, whether on social welfare or on lower incomes, who would pay the cost rents themselves, we could easily end up with a situation where less than 50% of the revenue coming into the development from rents was subsidised by the State. That would allow it to be off balance sheet, which is the model used in the rest of Europe.