Mr. Paul Lemass:

I hear the Deputy loud and clear about the desire in the Dáil, across many parties, to reclassify. I was trying to demonstrate that the reclassification exercise is likely to be a long-term development. The UK context is quite different and we are comparing apples with oranges. The UK body was not previously a not-for-profit organisation and was a private institution, although I forget the precise categorisation. The most important thing is that the delivery pipeline is not affected by reclassification. We have had some five or six meetings with the Irish Council for Social Housing and the Housing Alliance since I have been involved and I meet them regularly on the interim regulatory committee, on which Dr. Donal McManus also sits and where we discuss issues relating to reclassification, regulation, etc. There is engagement but there needs to be more and we are committed to ramping it up.

The EUROSTAT decision called into question issues such as the setting of differential rent, the allocation of housing and the configuration and type of housing that is being built. These are fundamental to overall social housing policy. We are happy to consider how changes in that area might affect reclassification but we do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater and we do not want unintended consequences. The fundamental thing about Rebuilding Ireland is to deliver social housing for social housing applicants, which we do at the moment through an allocations process that is understood and a differential rent system that is understood. The Minister is on record as saying he is looking actively at a national approach to differential rent and income eligibility, etc., and we have to carry that work forward, for the entire sector and not just as regards AHB participation. It is a slower-moving development than it may have been in the UK, where there were one or two quick fixes they could put in place.