Mr. Simon Brook:

The income threshold raises a very important issue because one of the characteristics of social housing in Ireland is that it is very residualised; it is a cluster of people on low incomes. Generally speaking, that is not good for those people and it is not good for the communities in which they live. There is an argument for saying those income thresholds should be increased. However, the difficulty we face is that there are far more people on low incomes on social housing waiting lists than we can house, or are likely to house, for the foreseeable future. In one sense, it is about priorities. One answer to the issue lies not with the housing association sector but with changes to private rented housing. If the private rented sector was seen to be a more viable long-term choice that people were able to make, people whose incomes may not be high enough to purchase but are above those which would make them eligible for social housing, that might be one housing route for those people. Overall, we would support an increase in the income threshold for people on housing waiting lists but the fact is we are having great difficulty in meeting the demands as expressed at present. In terms of the role of local authorities, we have always supported a joint approach, with local authorities and housing associations as providers of social housing in Ireland. We have put a great deal of work into establishing effective partnerships with local authorities and we think we have been successful in that to a large extent. We would hope very much that local authorities will continue to be providers of social housing and develop new social housing. The one thing we are able to do at present that local authorities are not able to do is to access loan finance. That means that under current arrangements it is easier for us to develop social housing than would be the case for local authorities.