Mr. John Hannigan:

The Housing Alliance has met the Department of Finance once, specifically on classification, in the very early stages of the considerations, and there has been nothing since. Along with our colleagues, we had two meetings with the Department, specifically on classification. Obviously, other meetings take place regularly on other issues.

In terms of whether there is a sense of co-operation, there is a sense of wanting to co-operate but we have not seen any actual evidence of action. There has been no action, as has been highlighted.

The change management programme was spoken about in some detail. It is fair to say that a significant proportion of that will not require legislation but will require some rethinking, none of which would affect the status or ethical approach we would take as not-for-profit organisations. From that perspective, we believe we can see reclassification happening without changing fundamentally what we are here to do and how we provide support and housing for our tenants.

The regulation Bill is an interesting question. We have not seen the regulation Bill. There has been no consultation with us in respect of it so we cannot tell the Deputy specifically what is in it.

What I can say is that in discussions with the regulator, it says it has seen it and does not believe there will be any additional impact in respect of classification. The regulator will have learned from the changes in the UK to regulatory requirements which impacted specifically on classification. In respect of what else is in the regulation Bill, I have no idea and most of my colleagues will be in the same position. We have not seen it. It raises questions that the sector it is likely to impact most is not being consulted directly in respect of its content. That is a concern.

On the questions on credit union finance and the special purpose vehicle, SPV, a significant level of work has been done in our sector on the creation of vehicles to enable borrowing to occur with credit unions and other third party funders, including pillar banks. We have been out to the market, as the Department and, perhaps, the committee have been advised, and terms of lending have been received from one of the credit union bodies. We have not pursued that at this point in time for commercial reasons because currently we have nobody and nothing to borrow from. My understanding is that the credit unions have not created a vehicle which is regulated by the Central Bank and which can enable borrowing to occur. Discussions with credit unions are active from our sector's perspective, in particular with individual members of the sector, but nothing is being done in terms of a deal that would see borrowing come through to the sector.