Mr. Declan Dunne:

Thriving communities are made up of private housing estates where people have ownership of their houses, including through shared ownership schemes, cost rental and social housing, as well as specific supported housing for older people, etc. We all want a mix, which is the ideal for a community, and it will be important for AHBs to be able to deliver social and cost rental schemes so that the Government's commitment in the programme for Government to take AHBs off balance sheet is followed through on. We have every confidence this will be the case. We and the Department are working actively on it.

In our role in AHBs to provide mixed tenure communities we work closely with the private sector. A lot of our work is done in partnership with the private sector. There is a role for private sector companies in the delivery of housing on a fixed price basis. We have a strong track record of having the types of frameworks that the CCMA is looking at. That is how the AHB sector works and how we deliver fixed price housing on time. That is the way forward.

In terms of potential investment from the private sector, there is an opportunity for pension funds and credit unions to invest in delivery through local authorities and in cost rental housing, via AHBs, that is off balance sheet, and we are actively working on that. We consciously believe that it is not a question of having mono-tenure and it is not desirable to have social housing alone. We do not see cost rental as being in any way some kind of private sector enclave. Everywhere we are already working with developers that are building private housing we want there to be an element of social and cost rental, and that will provide the mixture that is required.