Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To go back to the Bill, the next thing I want to talk about is the allocations. My understanding of the Bill is that the Minister, by way of regulations, will set down the criteria against which allocations can be made. Individual cost-rental landlords will be able to apply either for the scheme or more generally, as to which of those they apply to that particular scheme. While the Minister has given us some indication of what might be in the criteria, what would the Housing Alliance like to see in the criteria?

Second - and Mr. O'Gorman has more experience of me hassling him on this than others - is that we already have a significant problem within the transfer element of the allocation schemes within AHB social housing as its stock is smaller and therefore, its ability to offer transfers to tenants who may well need them is very limited. That is not a criticism but it seems to me this is an opportunity to design that out from the very beginning. What criteria do our witnesses want to see in the regulations? How do they see that being applied in real terms and have they any thoughts or considerations, given that they have the ear of the Department in the back of the room, regarding the issue of transfers? I have already raised it with the Department and I will be raising it again afterwards. This is a good opportunity to tackle that. That includes the possibility of transfers between cost-rental providers and not just within the stock of an individual cost-rental landlord.