Mr. David Malone:

As part of the consultation paper, we surveyed all our affiliated credit union members to get their thoughts on the approved housing bodies and on social housing. An overwhelming majority of them - more than 90% - said they were very supportive of the CP109 proposals in respect of social housing. We got feedback from them about the importance of the investment diversification provided by investment in social housing. At the moment, over 90% of the credit union movement's investments are with banks in the form of bank bonds or bank deposits. In many ways, credit unions are somewhat over-exposed to the banking and financial sector as a counterparty. Social housing can provide a significant element of diversification for them.

The credit unions have a regulatory reserve ratio of 16% at the moment. This means they are exceeding the 10% minimum requirement by six percentage points. Across the movement, this equates to €900 million, or approximately the level of funding suggested in CP109 as the maximum level that could be invested to yield 6,500 homes. Deputy Ó Broin spoke about the level of housing provided. It is interesting to note that our survey suggested that the credit unions would be willing to engage in further funding of that sector. If 20% of the credit union movement's investment base were dedicated to housing, almost 14,000 homes could be provided. There is certainly a commitment in the sector to provide substantial social funding for social housing projects.