Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The NAMA properties are by no means all housing. There is a big portfolio of NAMA properties. The Government committed to delivering 2,000 units from NAMA for social housing. NAMA identified over 4,000 properties as potentially suitable but the local authorities deemed only just over 2,000 of those to be suitable.

There is no point taking a house from NAMA that is situated in a place where nobody on a social housing list will live. We have to be realistic. The local authorities are best placed to identify which are suitable. I acknowledge that it was very slow at the start but the Minister and I have had several meetings with NAMA, which has established a special purpose vehicle into which it gathers the suitable properties and makes them available to local authorities or the voluntary housing sector. The figures I gave the Deputy show that it has escalated considerably in the past year and will again this year. I am confident we will deliver the 2,000 units in the lifetime of this Government.

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