Mr. Dara Turnbull:

That has been the general approach we have seen in emerging schemes in Europe. I mentioned some of the Nordic countries. On the tenant purchase scheme, our nearest neighbours in Wales and Scotland have ended their tenant purchase schemes in recent times on the basis of intergenerational unfairness. For example, Wales has seen that young Welsh people do not have the same benefits that their parents or grandparents had because the stock has been privatised and, in most cases, grown smaller.

The Deputy mentioned Knocknaheeny where the quality of the neighbourhood increased when people bought those homes. Typically, in the UK and other parts of Europe, that is not the case. We see that the quality of the privatised parts of the social housing stock, on average, tends to be lower than the parts of the social housing stock that remains in public ownership. That is because the people who buy those homes tend to have quite low incomes and, particularly where people are in retirement with small pensions, do not have the means to maintain those properties, whereas they would be overall better served by having remained in the social system. I am glad to see it works in Knocknaheeny but I would be wary about the long-term impact of low-income people of retirement age who have benefited from tenant purchase schemes.