Mr. Cathal Callan:

In response to the question on the commercial lending sector and the attractiveness of social housing to it at the moment, all our borrowings are with the HFA and the majority of our intended projects, which are at approval stage or have been approved, are with the HFA. We have entered into negotiations with other commercial lenders and have had discussions. I think we need to look beyond the commercial sector, to some extent, and at a bigger picture going forward. If one looks at the commercial sector in the UK, which funded the UK housing sector, it has retracted from that sector significantly in the past number of years. The attractiveness of 30 year financing to the banks is not there. As this sector grows and as the key players in it look to access additional finance, we need to look beyond the HFA and to other slightly more imaginative ways of funding our business moving forward.

I concur with Dr. Norris that Clúid, as an entity, has from the start of this process actively backed regulation. We see it as a cornerstone of where we want to be in ten to 15 years time. The reason for that is, as I said earlier, much of the processes and assessments we go through with the HFA would be somewhat similar to what a regulator would put in place. That has given comfort to the HFA to lend us a significant amount. We are looking at borrowings in total from the HFA and the capital advance leasing facility, CALF, of approximately €40 million currently. That is a significant exposure both to the Department and the HFA and they are only comfortable doing that because they have gone through a process with us.

The regulator needs to be in place and we have supported that actively. I am part of the working group Mr. Ó Lionáin has formed to ensure it is in place. It is one of the key elements for this sector going forward financially and it really needs to be in place very quickly because even when the regulator is in place, it will not be a magic wand and resolve the problems overnight. It will be a stepping stone to building confidence and growing this sector and its capacity.

There are positives and negatives to regulators. We need to be careful of the type of regulator we end up with. However, we need a regulator in whom future lenders have confidence.