Ms Dara Deering:

The Deputy is absolutely right. When the HBFI was established, the initial assumption was that finance would be more concerned with small and medium-sized developers or housebuilders, especially outside urban areas. We see that as a real gap. In fact, 65% of all the homes we have funded are in schemes that are being built with fewer than 50 homes. That is a reality. Some 63% of all the homes we have funded are outside the Dublin area. Both those factors are clear evidence that there is less availability of finance and, therefore, more demand outside the main areas.

One of the things we did very early was a strategic review and a large piece of market research. We identified gaps even beyond that. If we look at small housing schemes, when the HBFI was initially set up, the assumption was the demand would be in units greater than ten. Actually, 14% of all housing supply in Ireland over the past number of years is in schemes of fewer than ten units. We brought out a product specifically to support housebuilders who want to build between five and ten units to try to fill that gap further. Equally, on the other side of the spectrum, we saw real challenges with apartment delivery and the financing of apartment delivery schemes so we brought out a product specifically for that. That was the message I was trying to get across in my opening statement. There is not one housing market; there are multiple markets. There are multiple challenges facing those markets and we have tried to respond to the gaps as they emerge.