Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Sorry, there were 40,835 HAP properties. There were 24,456 landlords who had one single property while 4,010 had more than one property. A total of 3,402 landlords had between two and five properties, 308 landlords had between six and ten properties and 300 landlords had in excess of ten properties. There was one landlord who had 241 properties in the HAP scheme. We will put that into the mix and will note and publish the correspondence. We will discuss it further as part of our forthcoming meetings on housing. Some of the information supplied is incomplete but we acknowledge receipt of the data.

The next item of correspondence, No. 1895B is from Mr. Ray Mitchell of the HSE regarding the transfer of properties to the HSE from religious congregations under the redress scheme. In terms of the 2002 offers, Mr. Mitchell's letter states that there are still two properties outstanding. One belongs to the Sacred Heart order in Cappoquin and the other is also in Waterford. There was an issue in relation to title. In the latter half of 2008 progress was made with regard to one of the properties and the HSE expects to have the closing documents within the next few months on the other one. Progress is being made but we will continue to monitor that. In terms of the 2009 offers, there are two outstanding properties. One is Bláithín on the Gracepark Road. The HSE is still waiting to hear from the owner's solicitor. It wrote to the solicitor three months ago but has had no response to date. We will ask the HSE to follow that up. The National Rehabilitation Hospital is a big one which the HSE says is complicated. It will require the establishment of a new trust. It will be signed over to the HSE but there will be a lease-back arrangement involving a new trust. That is taking a considerable amount of time and the HSE says that it will take another few months to complete. We will keep an eye on this until the process is complete. That is just the HSE element. Separate progress reports are coming from the Department of Education and Skills intermittently. We will keep on top of both elements. We will note and publish the correspondence and keep the issue of those transfers on our agenda until they are all concluded. Nobody else seems to be following it at this stage.

The next item is No. 1897B from Mr. Paul Quinn, chief procurement officer at the Office of Government Procurement, dated 25 January 2019 providing information requested by the committee regarding the role of the National Development Finance Agency and the Office of Government Procurement in the procurement arrangements for the national paediatric hospital. We will note and publish this. There is no substantial or significant information therein, from our point of view. It states that not everyone has to follow the standard procurement process rules and that exceptions are set out in Circular 33/06. Regardless of exceptions, however, the contracting body must do all of the procurement work in the proper manner.