Mr. Paul Lemass:

I will pick up on the Deputy's comments. The origins of the sector was initially related to vulnerable people but it is a much broader response now. There are three tiers operating in the voluntary system. I would be surprised if the statutory system does not follow something similar, if not identical. They seem to be working well and it is proportionate to the size of the AHB.

On the question of capacity when it is on balance sheet, the national development plan out to 2027 envisages significant construction of social housing. It is in the order of 11,000 to 12,000 houses per annum from 2021 to 2027, and that money is provided for in the national development plan. That is a baseline that is already provided for in funding. Thereafter, if there is a challenge in funding, it would be a matter for the Government to look at prioritisation and to ask if there are priorities for capital funding in another area or if it should go to housing. We are working on the question of reclassification. We met the Irish Council for Social Housing last week, we are due to meet the Housing Alliance in the next week or two and we have had engagement with the CSO, which is to answer Deputy Ó Broin's earlier question. We have had engagement with the CSO as recently as this week and we intend to meet it to see what the options are.

On the nominations process, the proposal on the table from the ICSH, and the Housing Alliance's proposal is broadly similar, is that by use of choice-based lettings, a clear distinction is made between the allocations and the nominations. The allocations would come from a scheme for social housing support assessment, which local authorities do every year and which gives us the figure of 68,000 people on the housing waiting list, but the nominations to a unit would be done by the AHB. The idea is the choice-based letting process would demonstrate an absence of control by the local authority on that process. We are teasing through the various process steps. I cannot see how we get away from having some form of social housing need assessment at present. That generates a social housing list, which then feeds AHBs when they are drawing down funds through the various Government funding lines. I cannot see a way out of that at present but let us continue to work on it and see what we can do about it. That is where we are.