Mr. John Hannigan:

On the impact, I would like to provide clarity on the figures in order that members know what they mean. Until the classification deadline was set and while we were on the balance sheet, we were able to generate €3 from the private sector for every €1 we received from the State. At that point the borrowings of the Housing Finance Agency, HFA, were considered to be off-balance sheet. They are now considered to be on the balance sheet. Everything we have borrowed since, regardless of from where it came, has been on the balance sheet. We have lost the ability to provide an extra €3 worth for every €1 spent by the State on housing. That is where we are.

Classification, if it was to be returned to us, offers us the opportunity to go back to doing that. For every €1 we get from the State in subsidy, we can provide another €3 in private finance that is not on the State's balance sheet. That is important because we are all aware of the national children's hospital, the national broadband plan and MetroLink. We now compete in the same fiscal space - I hate that phrase but it is commonly understood by everybody - as all those projects. We have read in the press and Ministers have said in the Dáil that other projects will be impacted as a result of that. Nothing has been announced on housing yet, but the reality is that if Brexit is to be as hard as we think it could be, the State will go from a potential small surplus to a very large deficit. That would mean we would have no fiscal space and all housing - local authority and AHB provision - could be wiped out. We have a pending difficulty and if we do not resolve this sooner rather than later, we could see the housing we provide wiped out completely.