Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

As I said to one of the Senator’s colleagues, the Government did not have money at that time to give to local authorities for capital programmes to be able to buy the units. This was a way for properties to stay and be used for social housing as part of a leasing programme. That was not my decision. It was a decision of the Government as part of the programme. While I understand where the Senator is coming from, I tried to come up with an innovative way in order that properties could be made available and that, ultimately, the Government could retain the SPV we set up that owns the properties. It means those properties still stay in State ownership but the money involved moves around the system.

While I understand the argument being made with regard to the lease costs, NAMA leases with these AHBs and local authorities generally charge approximately 80% of market rent. They are getting-----