Mr. Seamus Coffey:

Housing is an area we looked at recently. Our mandate relates to the fiscal side of things and not necessarily on the appropriate model for the provision of housing in Ireland. However, we have looked at some of the changes that have happened and rather than seeing increased housing provision moving what we might call off balance sheet, with the reclassification of the approved housing bodies we have seen more of it come within the general Government sector, primarily because they are almost entirely funded from Government sources, whether they are capital projects with grants from local authorities or borrowing through the Housing Finance Agency. Their current receipts for providing the properties come from the availability payments they get from local authorities, which top up the rent they receive to 90% of the market.

We compare it to other countries in terms of where their capital spending on public housing appears and if it shows up in their general government accounts, and it does not. It is clear, therefore, that there is a different model out there and one of those might be cost rental housing where non-profit agencies charge possibly controlled rents but rents based on the cost. In that way they do not have to be fully funded from Government sources and more of their income is coming through the rent they are charging the tenants rather than on subsidies coming through the Government sector that have been on balance sheet. The current moves in Ireland are the opposite of what the Deputy is suggesting. More activity is coming on balance sheet and it would require a change in the approach to have it move in the direction he suggests but that is possibly a question for the Housing Finance Agency, which deals with many of the approved housing bodies. A change in the way the rental situation is addressed might move it in that direction but, unfortunately from the Deputy's perspective, the move is in the other direction.