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

I thank the Secretary General.

On the approved housing bodies, we had a very useful session last week with the Irish Council for Social Housing and another agency. They talked about the possibility of being able to leverage funds from other sources. Some of that relates to putting it on a statutory basis. I understand that is obviously in the policy area, but the Department will be working on that.

Where is it within the Department at this stage? Many of us would have liked to see it on a statutory basis initially. It appears to be necessary for it to be put on a statutory basis in order to bring forward the additional fund and, obviously, scale up the amount of housing that could be funded in a different way. Where is it in the context of the discussions that are ongoing? Are we nearly there in finalising the legislation for it?