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

To add to that, I agree. For that to happen, there needs to be a single financing structure for all cost rentals. There are now three different financing structures between the AHBs, the local authorities and the LDA. There needs to be a single rent setting methodology. There are different rent setting methodologies within the witnesses' sector and again within the local authorities and the AHBs. We also have to pay very close attention to that cohort of people who are excluded from social housing because of income thresholds and who are increasingly excluded from cost rental. That is not a criticism of anybody in this room. That is a policy and a financing matter. In some senses, if we do not resolve those problems at this early stage it will be too late when we start to see them manifest themselves. Again, this is not for the witnesses but for the benefit of the Department officials who we will come to in a moment, we also have to stop linking the rents to market rents because we are only linking the rents to a portion of the market rent, which is new market rents. In most cases the rents are above the existing rents for existing long-term renters in the private rental sector.

I know that has a risk element to it. None of us are being critical of the emergence of cost rental but if these issues are not resolved early, the tenure will not have the level of success that it could and should have, but they are questions for the next session.