Mr. John Coleman:

I thank Senator Cummins. It is a good point. We do not conceptually or fundamentally have a bias against affordable purchase homes. In some respects it is a function of the sites that we have. I will explain this. Most of the sites to which we have access are in and around 80% for apartments. Apartments are more expensive and complex to deliver than houses. There is not a strong sales market, to say the least, for apartments in the country at present, albeit the Government's Croí Cónaithe scheme will help with this. We are keen to try to facilitate it if we can.

With regard to the need for us to intervene with developers for housing sites, it can accelerate development where we work with developers. Perhaps the greatest need is with regard to apartments in order to make them viable for the schemes to be delivered. Otherwise they would not be delivered, or certainly delivered much more slowly. Because we are focused on apartments, by and large, it almost by default brings us more towards cost rental. With the higher delivery costs we can make them work better for rent. Having said this, we have some schemes, including Waterford as Senator Cummins mentioned. Not all of the schemes that we are delivering directly are for apartments. In the coming months we will release in and around 51 houses in Shanganagh for sale to qualifying affordable purchasers. We will also have other sites. For example, in my opening statement I mentioned the Teagasc site for 185 homes in Kinsealy. They will be for affordable sale because of the housing typology; we do not plan to hold houses for rent. We would like them sold as affordable purchase housing.