Mr. Seán O'Neill:

Deputy Ó Broin asked whether a designated activity company, DAC, was the appropriate entity for a project that is more social than profit-based and Senator Kelleher mentioned the objectives of the LDA. Every company has a constitution, or what we used to call a memorandum and articles of association, but the objectives of a company can be quite specific; they do not all have to be profit-based. A company's objective is to deliver housing, whether social, affordable or whatever else. It does not have to be overly prescriptive and specify the amount of housing to be private and the amount to be social. Flexible wording can be employed. One of the Senator's concerns regarding the objectives is that she wants delivery of housing to be predominantly State-led.

To touch on one of the points about homelessness, which is a real issue, there is a very significant issue with regard to the management of our public-owned housing stock. The Senator mentioned examples herself. I know many people who live in large houses despite only two people living there while there are families of four or five living in hotel rooms. There is something wrong with that model. It is not as if we do not have enough roofs in the country to house these 10,000 people, we are just not managing stock correctly. The first house I bought in Dublin, 20 years ago, was a council house. I probably paid 25 times the price the vendors had paid for it. Retention, recycling and efficient management of the public-owned housing stock is key to the homelessness problem. If the LDA is going to deliver social and affordable housing, that housing has to be retained. Mr. O'Mahony mentioned leasing it. It is a key point. This housing needs to be retained, kept in public control, and managed properly.