Mr. Barry Quinlan:

Private development is going to be a key element of our endeavours overall. When we look at this situation in the context of housing policy, we look at it from the perspective of citizens and social housing, and people who require assistance in that regard. Those eligible for affordable housing are a different group of people who would not be eligible for social housing, but who can have difficulty accessing the market. There is also an element of housing provision where the market can respond and people have sufficient incomes to enable them to buy or rent a housing product.

Overall, from a planning perspective and in the context of the national planning framework, the vision is for mixed communities which really work. As I said, we must ensure some special areas of housing, such as housing for people with disabilities and older people, are integrated. These are exactly the types of conversations that we have with our colleagues in planning and with the local authorities concerning the implementation of these various mechanisms to build communities. The private part of this policy, therefore, is encompassed in two ways. First, in the area of planning, there is a role for the local authorities in planning overall development in an area. Second, the approach that has been successful in social housing is an element that will be available in this context. I refer to local authorities having multiple mechanisms to make affordable housing available. Those mechanisms can work, and if the local authorities have problems with land, they can have various partnerships to deliver the same product. Consumers get affordable houses sooner, and the local authority has a mechanism which it can access more quickly and which allows it to deliver housing more quickly.

Turning to the development sector, the homes are generally built by the same builders. Much of this approach involves giving certainty in respect of demand and that the product will be taken up. That is what we are trying to do in working with the local authorities, AHBs and the LDA.

There is a very co-ordinated approach in the Department, and all the policies and programmes seek to complement each other. We were really careful, in respect of cost rental and other things, to ensure cognisance is taken of the other policy objectives regarding social housing, private development more generally and, ultimately, the planning requirements for areas.

There has been much discussion regarding pension funds, and there are two sides to this issue. The Senator is correct about the issue of capacity and that it becomes an issue when there is a deficit in the provision of the numbers of homes we need. We must in that context open as many channels as possible for that delivery. On the other hand, as we discussed previously, we must also carefully manage those approaches so the costs do not render the cost-rental model of housing as unaffordable as it would have been if we did not manage this area. There are two sides to this issue, therefore, but I take the Senator's point regarding overall capacity.