Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I welcome all our visitors today. Deputy Catherine Murphy has asked most of the questions I wanted asked but I have a couple more. I get the impression from their contributions that, broadly speaking, the witnesses are in favour of the Bill. Do they see it primarily as improving how approved housing bodies work? Do they see it having any role in improving the delivery of housing, which is a vital and important issue? I would be very interested in the responses of witnesses to the issue Deputy Murphy raised about the Housing Finance Agency and the capacity to access that funding. While this is not directly to do with the Bill, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, mentioned that there were 536 housing bodies. How many are active and likely to deliver housing? I will leave it at that.