Ms Caroline Timmons:

In fact, we have looked at what is there for older people's housing in terms of the pipeline of units coming forward. Age Friendly Ireland has done a bit of work for us in that area. I am sure that the Deputy is aware that Age Friendly Ireland is a great service that is jointly funded by my Department and the Department of Health. Age Friendly Ireland, along with local authorities, analysed the type of pipeline that they have coming forward. They looked at the 250 units that they have done over the last couple of years as local authority and there are about 700 units coming forward. Some of them are AHBs but quite a lot of them are local authority housing, which is interesting. Local authorities, like the Deputy, are aware that there is an appetite for older people's housing and that if they bring it forward that it will be accepted and supported by communities. We can see a lot of that coming forward and there is funding for them.

In terms of the financial contribution piece, we are aware of the scheme from Dublin City Council, DCC. Last year, Age Friendly Ireland did a piece for us arising out right sizing in terms of Housing Options for our Ageing Population. One of the things that we did, as a Department, was to look at the number of authorities that had financial contribution schemes in place and there is quite a few. As the Deputy will be aware, Limerick has one at Mungret, which it advertised last December and DCC would have it as well. We have examined that as to whether it is a model that we could take forward. It is being used a part of the model at the St. Michael's development in Inchicore and will be allowed as a proportion of the allocations going that way. I do not think that I have been aware that was potentially an issue in terms of allocation.

That is something I can take away and look at. I am aware of the overall issue and we have addressed it in the context of previous issues with homeless accommodation and the points raised about people with notices to quit. I will, however, have a look at what the Deputy mentioned. I was not aware that Dublin City Council was considering winding it down. We have issued a circular in respect of the allegations. We have said that local authorities can purchase properties within the categories that already exist. We can re-examine this to see if it is causing a difficulty in that space. We will then respond to the Deputy.