Ms Mary Rose Burke:

It is particularly social housing because this has been covered both in this House and in the media quite a lot. We have seen shortages in housing across the entire market, both in the private market and in social housing, where we think it is one area where we can deliver on a social objective while contributing to growth in the economy. At the moment, social housing is pretty much primarily provided directly or through rent supports by the Department but there is an opportunity to make significant inroads into the housing problem with some large-scale social housing developments done through off-balance sheet investments with public private partnerships. We can avail of money at very low rates at the moment. Now is the time to invest in that and to deliver on two policy objectives.