Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I am trying to envisage a situation. In the way AHBs are set up, there is often co-operation with the local authority. There would be a piece of land and housing would be developed, and that would be important because it brings some affordable housing supply. Some of this goes back decades. The bigger ones are of less concern because they were set up in a modern context and they are professional organisations. Some of the others rely on volunteers. They would have been set up with the intention of people being drawn primarily from the social housing list, though not exclusively - I think it was 75:25 - and the rent would be different depending on what stream the tenants came from. The Charities Regulator does not have a function to look at the how the approved housing bodies operate. They could in theory charge 100% market rents, if you like. There would be a big income and that is not what was intended. That is the remit of the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority.