Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

People must understand that NAMA did not own the properties involved. Our debtors or receivers owned them. We only held the loans. We told our debtors and receivers that there were potential buyers of their assets in the form of local authorities. We pointed out that there was an opportunity for them to sell unsold stock. We also worked with the Housing Agency and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. We gave them information on the properties that were available, their locations and so forth and asked if they were interested in them. The Housing Agency then engaged with the local authorities. Approximately 7,500 properties were offered to the local authorities and confirmed demand stands currently at 2,700. Some local authorities were very quick off the mark. They expressed an interest in buying units in certain locations, agreed a price and the debtors or receivers were happy to sell. We were happy to approve sales on that basis, as long as market value was achieved. Other local authorities, however, took a very long time to consider the matter. As the housing crisis has worsened, some local authorities are now regretting having rejected properties offered to them between 2012 and 2015 when the housing crisis was not so acute. Unfortunately, however, the debtors or receivers have sold them into the market at this stage.

At this point, NAMA has about 2,900 units left in its portfolio, approximately 1,400 of which are in National Asset Residential Property Services, NARPS, our special purpose vehicle, SPV, which means they have been provided for social housing. They have been leased to approved housing bodies and local authorities. The remaining 1,500 are effectively rented. I looked at the figures yesterday and of that 1,500, approximately 190 are unoccupied. I asked why 190 were unoccupied. I found that 90 have been sold but the new owners have not yet moved in and the others are being remediated because there are fire safety issues with them. We are spending a lot of money on remediation so that those units will become available again. They cannot be occupied at the moment because if something happened, we would be vicariously responsible. We cannot let people into units when we know that they do not have a fire certificate or that there are other structural issues that render them unsafe. We have very little stock left at this stage. Every unit that has not been sold and that can be rented and used is available. The only additional units that will become available for social and affordable housing will become available through two mechanisms. The first is Part V, which makes 10% of developments available so that out of every 50 units built, for example, five will go to the local authority. The other significant mechanism is the deal that will hopefully be concluded with Dublin City Council on the Poolbeg site. If An Bord Pleanála approves the 3,500 unit scheme, 10% will be social housing, amounting to 350 units and another 15% or 550 units will be affordable housing which will be sold to Dublin City Council. Hopefully a deal can be concluded. That is the situation with NAMA at this point. We offered up what we had over a number of years. By the time some local authorities came back to us the debtors or receivers had sold the properties on or in some cases the debtor had paid off his or her par debt and had moved out of NAMA, in which case we could not offer the properties any more.

I will refer briefly to the issue of unfinished housing estates. There were many examples of estates of around 35 houses, with ten houses sold and occupied and 15 only half built. NAMA was very successful in reducing the number of such estates by funding the completion of the remaining houses and making some or all of them available to approved housing bodies or local authorities for social housing. That solved two problems - the social housing shortage and the problem of unfinished housing estates. In 2010 there were approximately 1,500 unfinished housing estates in the country, of which 335 were in NAMA. As of today, there are only three such estates remaining. A lot of that is down to NAMA making funding available to complete the estates, which has been to the benefit of everybody.