Mr. Simon Brook:

That is an important point. We share Mr. Brennan's view that historically housing associations have not given tenants the right to buy. Historically, housing associations have been primarily special needs providers. Certainly, there would be difficulties in bringing in a tenant purchase scheme in a scheme for sheltered housing for the elderly, for example. However, for mainstream housing we have absolutely no objection to it - in fact, we would strongly support it - but it must be done in a way that means there is no reduction in the overall amount of social housing. This means it must not be done at a discount because we cannot afford to sell housing at a loss. We can afford to sell housing at market value because we could then replace the unit sold with another social housing unit. In fact, there would be an overall increase in the amount of social housing as a result. We are looking at putting together a scheme which we believe is feasible. We will be presenting it to the Department in due course and we have approval from our board for it. Another feature is that this would help with creating mixed tenure communities and there is considerable evidence that these types of communities are successful.

Deputy Mulherin made a comment about local authorities and asked whether there was something wrong with the system. Yes, certainly there is something wrong with the system. We have no wish to hog all the available resources. We have plenty of work to do and there is plenty of work for local authorities to do as well. If there were mechanisms by which local authorities could access funding that was off-balance-sheet - this is the only way such mechanisms can function at the moment - then we would strongly welcome them.