Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of supplementary questions. To labour the point, on the basis of the Housing Agency's own definition of affordability given at the start, and the generally accepted definition, someone would need a monthly net income of €3,650 or a weekly income of €842. I emphasis that because Enniskerry Road will happen; it is on-site. The next big project will be St. Michael's and it seems that everyone in the room is suggesting it would be much better if the rents were lower than €1,200 a month. We need to try to make sure that with St. Michael's, that is achieved. Although St. Michael's Estate in Inchicore does not have the site-specific problems of Enniskerry Road, the European Investment Bank loan is over a much shorter time. The challenge therefore is less to do with the site-specific stuff and more to do with the financing. That is why these contributions are so important.

I have a couple of technical questions about Enniskerry Road. Will the witnesses from the Housing Agency talk us through the management and maintenance formula in order that we can get a sense of what that adds to the tender price mentioned at the start in terms of the overall costs? The tender price mentioned was €45 million. Is that just for construction, is it for construction and site servicing or are other costs built in to that? It gives a unit price of around €300,000, which is substantially above the average cost for apartments built by the state. Is it, as the Chairman suggested, to do with the granite and the car parking or are other costs rolled in?

In relation to Enniskerry Road, and specifically St. Michael's, how do we get the price down? Entry-level rent gets cheaper over time only if one's income rises. For a lot of modest-income workers, their incomes are the least likely to rise sufficiently over time. There is no guarantee that somebody will get much benefit ten years in if their income remains the same. For example, with Enniskerry Road, if the site service allocation had been doubled to €8 million or €12 million, how much would that have allowed the entry-level rent to be brought down? I am exceptionally concerned about St. Michael's. Whatever about the peculiarities of Enniskerry Road, if St. Michael's comes in at €1,000 or €1,200, people will see cost rental as an unaffordable option.

Is it a 25-year EIB loan and will that cause difficulty for entry-level rents? By how much would the maturity of the loan need to be extended to bring rents below the €900 mark? By how much would the serviced sites fund need to be increased? I am not asking for an opinion, but the committee needs to hear the options.

Finally, I would love to see some of those spreadsheets for the different options and I imagine other committee members would as well. I do not know if the agency representatives are in a position to share them with us but, if so, the committee would benefit from sight of them. For example, could we could see the details of the Enniskerry Road development after it is all signed and completed? The more detailed information we have, the better we will understand it. The crucial question with the Enniskerry Road and St. Michael's Estate projects is what it would take to bring the figures down to between €700 and €900 in terms of increased capital or longer loan maturities, especially in the case of St. Michael's Estate.