Ms Bairbre Nic Aongusa:

I would like to make a couple of points in regard to waiting lists. First, the figures we have, on which the targets are based, are from the housing needs assessment of 2013, which recorded a housing need of 89,000. The social housing strategy commits to a new housing needs assessment this year. That process is now under way. We will have a comparable figure, whatever that is, for 2016 by the end of this year. Second, we know that approximately 50% of that 89,000 were already in housing paid for by the State by way of rent supplement. We have found through the experience of choice-based letting in Cork that some of the people on the social housing list are not actively seeking a social housing unit. One of our objectives is to encourage local authorities to adopt choice-based letting in order that we can get a more real figure for the actual social housing need - the net need. There are a number of different things we want to do to get a more accurate figure on waiting lists.

On the point that if we only have sustainable communities in Part V we will never meet need, it must be borne in mind that the social housing strategy is not just about local authority build. What we are speaking about today and the topic in which there is most interest is construction by local authorities, but the social housing strategy has multiple strands.

We have approved housing body builds as well, for example. Approved housing bodies can build under the capital assistance scheme and they can also get a capital advance leasing facility and raise funding from the private sector. Therefore, that is off-balance sheet, which goes to another issue about which we were speaking. Crucially, approved housing bodies can do mixed tenure developments and some of them already have done so. They can have a mix of affordable and private properties.

It is a pillar of the social housing strategy to provide 75,000 units through the private rented sector and that is why it is crucial for us that the private rental sector would come on stream. We are also actively considering an affordable rental scheme, which the Minister will be bringing forward to Government very shortly to provide for that cohort of the population on low incomes who do not qualify for social housing. That is so there is something there for them.