Mr. Declan Dunne:

I might answer a few of the questions, starting with the general points about the housing and homelessness crises. It is acknowledged everywhere that we are in a bad situation. There is no other way of looking at it. I often wonder how we can have a thriving economy if we do not have a functioning housing market. It is hitting many people in different ways. Constantly on my mind is the question of whether young people who are at the point of family formation will stay in this country if they cannot access housing in some form or other. What is their future in Ireland? This issue affects people who are trying to access mortgages or social housing, but there is also a group in the middle who are seeking an intermediate solution because they qualify neither for social housing nor mortgages. There is a significant question to be addressed in that. For this reason there is a need for the State to consider some intermediate provision, be it called "affordable", "cash rental" or whatever model is considered to be the right one.

As for the role of AHBs in all of this, I have been in my role since last August when I joined Respond! I come with an outsider's view of AHBs and a strong feeling that there is room for improvement. In a voluntary role, I chair the network of all of the homeless organisations in the four counties of Dublin. Previously, I worked as the CEO of a specialist AHB, Sophia Housing, which deals with people with complex needs. I cannot get the situation that those people are in out of my bloodstream. I cannot forget the degree of need that people have. That is why we in Respond! try to deliver our part. Our AHB role is a small part, though, and we are not the solution for housing. Local authorities, the wider State and private provision have a role. If all of the organisations present improved our delivery three times over, it would be a small contribution. We should increase our delivery and make our contribution, but it is not going to sort out the problem.

With people's needs in mind, the first thing that I did upon joining Respond! was to say that we needed to accept some responsibility for homelessness. We could not just sit pretty as a landlord taking in rent, able to do what we do and have 100 employees, a finance department and this and that department without accepting our responsibility for doing something about homelessness. For that reason, we have engaged in the provision of emergency accommodation. No one wants to do that and we should not have to provide emergency accommodation. It is crazy that we have to go down that route, but we absolutely have to because the delivery pipeline of all sorts of housing - private, social and any kind of affordable housing - is so slow that it will take us years to address it.

We have to do it while also doing other things.

I would be with anyone who wants to challenge us, our arrogance, our efficiency, our effectiveness or whatever. It is appropriate that happens and I would welcome it. My colleagues feel the same way. We are at this meeting trying to determine how we can be held to account and demonstrate how we are regulated, how we operate and how we can be challenged to improve what we are doing, and whether it is possible for us to do more, be that through credit union money or whatever. That is our motivation.

In terms of representation from local authority members or Deputies, I would personally be comfortable with that. We are in a democracy and that is what we are supposed, and need, to do. I have a personal commitment to doing that. It happens. It is helpful to our role on the balance.