Mr. Sean O'Connor:

To return to Deputy Buckley's point about joined-up thinking, AHBs have a unique role. We are like a conduit between the public and the private sector. I include the LDA in this context when I say that. I am speaking from a practitioner's point of view in Tuath. We currently have just under 1,100 cost-rental units and we will be at 1,800 by year end.

We were experiencing a slowdown around the change in Government. That has cleared. I can only speak for Tuath, but we are getting approvals through and we will hit our target of 1,800 units by the end of the year. Further targets are going through.

I do think AHBs have a central role. It is especially the case across Europe. Ireland is an outlier in terms of the size of the sector. Compared to elsewhere in Europe - I am sure Dara Turnbull and Donal McManus will be able to evidence this point - Ireland has not only a low stock of social housing and this new form of cost-rental tenure, but the AHB sector is particularly small. Housing is all we do, while local authorities have lots of other things to do. I have worked in other jurisdictions and the enabling role, if done properly, is very good. I think Professor Norris alluded to people having enabling roles in bringing forward sites, developing them and not necessarily holding them but passing them on to organisations whose sole purpose is not-for-profit provision of affordable housing.