Mr. Brian O'Gorman:

I thank the committee for inviting us here today. In my short introductory comments I shall attempt to outline the scope of work undertaken by the Clúid Housing Association.

Clúid is a not-for-profit housing association which operates to further its key objective to help households in housing need. The organisation is an approved housing body which was accorded approved status by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in February 1994, which means it is 20 years old this year.

Clúid is led by a board of directors who delegate day-to-day operations to a team of paid staff. The board is comprised of volunteers who are not remunerated, who come from a wide range of backgrounds and bring much valued expertise to the organisation. In 2014, Clúid's board was awarded the inaugural board of governance award, which was presented by the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, at the Irish Council for Social Housing biennial housing conference.

Clúid is committed to good governance. It is a signatory of the Government's code for the community sector and the code issued by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government entitled Building for the Future.

We strongly support the inclusion of housing association tenancies within the residential tenancies board. The measure will promote good governance and provide important safeguards to tenants.

Clúid employs 111 staff across a range of disciplines. The association has two core activities - developing new housing and managing its existing property portfolio. At present the association owns and manages 4,770 properties and provides property services to another 713 properties. It also provides these services to other social landlords, mainly local authorities but also housing associations. All of Clúid's property management staff are licensed by the Property Services Regulatory Authority to undertake property management services. Tenants who occupy Clúid dwellings are nominated by local authorities from their housing waiting list. Tenants pay a differential or affordable rents in much the same way as local authority tenants, based on a percentage of their disposable income. That means that if their income goes up then their rent increases and if their income goes down - due to losing a job, for example - then their rent will decrease.

In our written submission we gave a breakdown of the supply of housing achieved by the Clúid Housing Association during 2013. We measure our success on the basis of the number of new households that we can assist in any one year. The housing environment remains challenging and waiting lists for houses continue to grow, so it is imperative that housing associations continue to provide social housing to those in need. In 2013 Clúid delivered 407 new homes through eight different routes. Private finance was raised to secure 151 new properties. An example of this was at Coneyboro, Athy, County Kildare, where properties were purchased from NAMA, which also carried out completion works. The loan finance was sourced through the Housing Finance Agency. The acquisition completed an unfinished private estate where the empty dwellings had been the source of much anti-social behaviour. Therefore, the scheme provided the dual gain of providing housing for those in need and bringing to an end a troublesome section of a new and otherwise thriving private estate. Under the mortgage-to-rent scheme 31 properties were acquired, which enabled Clúid to assist households with unsustainable mortgages. In applying for mortgage-to-rent the householder agrees to surrender ownership of the property and become a tenant of the housing association. This enables the householder to remain in their former home and community.

Leasing initiatives enabled us to provide housing to 28 households in the past year. There are properties located in areas of housing need. We lease these properties from private owners and make them available to housing applicants on local authority waiting lists.

The capital assistance scheme is targeted at special needs households. In 2013, the scheme provided 40 homes for older persons. Included in these 40 homes were 15 in Oakwood in Killarney which are located beside an existing housing development for older persons and a day centre previously developed by Clúid. In 2010 the capital loan and subsidy scheme was discontinued, but a small number of properties are still being completed. In 2013, Clúid delivered seven properties at Esker Hill, Ballinasloe, County Galway using funding provided by the scheme. Also, 23 units were provided in Mallow, County Cork, through the National Asset Residential Property Services, NARPS, which is NAMA's special purpose vehicle. A total of 74 homes were provided by bringing into use properties that local authorities had developed for sale but that remained unoccupied due to the collapse of the private owner-occupier sector. When a housing association succeeds in letting these properties, the local authority is no longer responsible for making local loan repayments and the money saved can be used to provide local services. The majority of the properties brought into use by Clúid during 2013 were in County Cork.

Management agreements where the Clúid Housing Association manages new property on behalf of other social landlords, mainly local authorities, produced 53 units for us during 2013. As many as 30 of them were acquired by Dublin City Council in Herberton in Dublin city.

We hope that Clúid can increase its level of delivery during 2014. We are acutely aware of the responsibility placed on housing associations to deliver supply to households on waiting lists and we will endeavour to meet this challenge. I thank the committee for their attention. I am happy to respond to any questions or requests for clarification.