Mr. Philip Nugent:

In the case of the 700 houses that were sold, they were sold for their original intended purpose as affordable housing so local authorities would not inform us in those cases. We do not need to know. That is what the houses were provided for. However, if local authorities proposed to buy into permanent social housing stock a number of unsold units then the Department would need to know and would have to approve those acquisitions.

Similarly, if they transfer into the social housing leasing programme on a temporary basis, the Department would have to give that the green light, but if they are being sold for their original intended purpose, the Department will hear about that as a statistical return.