John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Finally Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on the Croí Cónaithe cities fund mentioned in his opening statement and the 582 units in the context of that scheme, it is lower than what we would have hoped for in terms of the uptake of that scheme. I have two questions. Is there feedback from the sector as to why there is not more of an uptake? Is there capacity to interchange the Croí Cónaithe cities and cost-rental schemes where there is essentially a backstop put in place whereby if the unit does not sell that it can be done through cost rental instead? That is the difficulty in terms of securing funding if you are building an apartment scheme of 200 units and you have no guarantee that you are going to have purchasers, notwithstanding the excellent value that will be brought to it through Croí Cónaithe cities.