Mr. Stephen McDonagh:

It is a different situation. EUROSTAT is responsible for applying the rules in a harmonised fashion across Europe. That is evidenced by how EUROSTAT took in the specifics of each country in the context of each representative national statistical institute's decision. Housing markets differ across Europe. As such, not all providers of social or affordable housing in other EU countries are on-balance sheet. This is the case for many reasons and would require a comparative review of how affordable housing was delivered in each EU member state.

In terms of debt, funding and what is on the balance sheet, anything that is borrowed from the private sector is general government debt. At the moment, that is in the order of €100 million. This is reflected in the fact that the borrowing is predominantly from the Housing Finance Agency, HFA, which is already on-balance sheet. Therefore, that debt is already captured when the HFA borrows.