Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. I am sorry for the delay in getting started. I remember the debate on the voluntary code. Some of us were very enthusiastic about making it a statutory code and being much more ambitious and quicker in doing that. I understand there is a bedding-in period but I refer to the ability at the time this was debated to get European Investment Bank money and other moneys. We were in the middle of a crash and it was early in the term of the then Government and it was becoming obvious that there was going to be a housing shortage. Maybe three or four years before it became very obvious in some parts of the country, it certainly had become very obvious early on in the area I represent. It was a lesson on where money can be got, rather than a matter of being told there is no money. The European Investment Bank had significant funds.

One of the impediments at the time - it is still an impediment - was that because approved housing bodies are governed by the charities regulations, they were precluded from making a loss. That was the impediment to being able to leverage the funds. The witnesses have said the Department of Finance will have to be involved when the code becomes statutory. Reference was also made to the ability to draw down finance. How will the impediment associated with charitable status be overcome? Does it involve a co-guarantor of the loan? How will it work practically?