Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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We now have tenants in some of the homes that were built under the same schemes. They were housed in social housing. There is another way to commercialise them.

A private company was brought in to manage them and now sets the rent. The people living in those homes have to apply to the local authority for housing. They must let on. The local authority must pretend they are on the housing waiting list. They do not have a social housing need because they are in a social house. The approved housing body, AHB, is unencumbered at the moment and is out of the finance period and a private company is managing them. In theory, the original approved housing body is still there. It is a small scheme. The residents were told that the rent would go up by 50%. That means that they are all pensioners who have to apply to the local authority which, in turn, has to let on that they are on the housing waiting list, HAP, or RAS. The taxpayer is now paying a rent subsidy for housing they built. The allocation of this, or any part of it, does not come from the local authority. On top of that, people are coming into them and are paying their own money. If that type of stuff is replicated across the country, what will happen? There is the fact that they are registered charities and cannot make a profit. There is another way of dealing with that, by bringing in a private company to manage them. In fairness, many of the small housing bodies that set them up are doing good work. The intention was very good. In some cases, the homes need some refurbishment now. The ones I spoke about are actually in good condition. Yet, this is a situation we are heading into. In 20 or 25 years' time when we are sitting in this room, there will be people who will again be scratching their heads and they will be wondering about a bigger problem.

That concludes our consideration of the work programme. Before we move briefly into private session, the last item of business is regarding any other matters the members wish to raise.