Ms Karen Murphy:

Deputy Ó Broin asked how we would deal with the rents issue without undermining our ethos. The objective is to return to the non-profit institutions serving households, NPISH, classification. That is essentially non-market in nature. In order to achieve that status or classification we do not envisage any significant change to the rent structure per se. We see a broadening of the category of clients that we need to serve, as traditionally we have always focused on social housing, but the market is now excluding so many different households that there is a necessary broadening. As Dr. McManus notes, the European rules must reflect that. We cannot have such a narrow definition because so many categories are excluded. That ethos is not in danger with regard to the NPISH status as it is essentially third sector or non-market.