Mr. Barry Quinlan:

In the first instance, we work closely with Cork City Council. The council has been to the fore in trying to deliver affordable housing, and we work closely with the team there on Boherboy and other sites. Boherboy will be one of the first sites that will come forward for affordable purchase under the new scheme. In addition, a great deal of support will be given to the council under the serviced sites fund and under LIHAF, as Mr. Nicholson mentioned earlier. One part of trying to help councils is the Exchequer funding towards delivery.

I take the Deputy's point regarding unsold affordable housing. It is not universal. There is quite a rump in Cork, but it was not the same everywhere. Part of that was because it was a very successful scheme there and there were many units. Obviously, when circumstances changed, the situation with those units changed. As I understand it, they are predominantly used at present for social housing, so they are being utilised for an important purpose. That is important.

I also take the Deputy's point about land. Again, land was generally bought by local authorities on the basis of it then being used for social or affordable housing. As things turned, some local authorities were left with land debt and land that was not capable of being developed at the time. A large amount of that land has now been worked through the various programmes in terms of social housing and so forth. There are some lands left. We also had the land aggregation scheme, which helped local authorities with the debt issue. There are some local authorities left that have significant land debt and no immediate pathway for the development of those lands for financial reasons. We are working on that with the CCMA at national level, so we are trying to work through some of those issues. However, I take the Deputy's point about them being legacy issues in the sector.

I will ask Mr. Nicholson to respond on the point about eligibility.