Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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It is a contribution and not the whole payment. The local authorities have to do that themselves.

The Deputy mentioned eight units in his constituency. The Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, is more familiar with this than I because he was there and looked at them. My information is that this was a case of the local authority doing something as a prototype. It was energy efficient passive housing, which we have heard a lot about of late. I accept the Deputy’s analysis of the costs but it was doing this as a prototype or sample scheme. It wants to see if there are long-term savings from a bigger outlay at the beginning. Sometimes we blame local authorities for not thinking outside the box but in some cases we should give them a chance. I like the fact it is being proactive and I would like to see local authorities being even more proactive.

By the end of quarter three of 2015, 2,526 of 6,574 units identified by NAMA as potentially suitable have been confirmed by local authorities as being suitable for social housing. Completed housing unit transfers to date stand at 1,241, together with a further 359 which have been contracted and where completion work is under way. This brings the total delivery of social housing from the NAMA portfolio, either completed or in the process of being done, to approximately 1,600.

I take the point in respect of the valuation issue. I do not have specific information on the Deputy’s local authority. I did not go into the detail. There was detailed engagement between the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and each local authority on this issue last week. Everyone knew this valuation was coming but the timing of it was an issue. It was in the middle of the budgetary process. We considered how we could deal with that and ensure that local authorities over the coming year would not be at a loss. In the valuation of the ESB and other utilities, one side went up and the other went down. It differed across all local authorities and as a consequence, some local authorities were hit, including the one in the Deputy’s area. We agreed to supplement that but I will give the Deputy a separate note on his local authority because I do not have that detail here.