Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to come back to the issue of housing. I do not want to delay the meeting but we are trying to get all of the answers today. On the previous occasion on which Mr. Doyle was before the committee, I raised the issue of many approved housing body builds from the 1990s, which were 95% funded by the public, now coming out of their term of finance. In other words, the loan has been paid back over a 25- or 30-year period. There is a clatter of these. I have corresponded on this with Mr. Harrington, who is a principal officer in the Department.

Will the Department provide a written response to the committee on what will happen with these? Some of them seem to be operating as private housing. As I have said previously, social housing tenants who went into them at the time or people who have been housed in them since are now being treated as if they are private tenants. The system of allocation is not going through local authorities. Social housing is being let and we do not know on what basis. It is not being assessed by local authorities. Hello money of up to €10,000 is being charged on some of them. The rents are no longer differential as they would be understood to be with social housing. People are being told to apply for social housing so they can access the housing assistance payment or the rental accommodation scheme. The problem now is that taxpayers are subsidising the rent for homes that they built in the first place, and I can give examples of this. A working group is in place. Mr. Harrington replied to me about this. Will the Department come back to me on the up-to-date situation? There is an avalanche of these coming. What hold do the Department or local authorities have whereby these must continue to be treated as social housing? Is progress being made?