Mr. John McCarthy:

The Minister is seized of this issue. In the House this week the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, indicated that if this matter is not resolved quickly all of the available options will be taken, or certainly will be explored, in order to bring it to a conclusion, because we cannot stand over a situation with that quantum of money, having provided a valuable and badly needed asset and it not being utilised. There is absolute commitment. There are ongoing negotiations. There was due to be a further meeting yesterday between the parties to try to resolve it but I have not got an update on the matter. It is something we are keeping a very close eye on.

There is a more general issue that the Deputy raised in regard to the voluntary housing sector. We need to put in place a statutory system for regulation of the approved housing body sector. There is a commitment in the Government's legislation programme to do that. Under the social housing strategy it is also committed to that, by quarter 2 of 2016, we will establish a statutorily based regulator in order to provided that more robust arrangement for the approved housing body sector.