Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is legislation which most in this House will welcome, and we will certainly collaborate with the Minister to ensure the regulation is fit for purpose. There are three concerns I want to flag at this stage. One is the fact there is very significant variance in the size and capacity of the approved housing bodies in the sector.

While greater regulation is going to be needed for the tier 3 approved housing bodies, particularly because they will be carrying the extra burden of unit delivery, it is important that we do not squeeze out the small, local tier 1, and bottom end of tier 2, bodies which have units, are not looking to expand and need to be encouraged and supported to continue to do what they are doing.

The second issue arises in the context of the EUROSTAT and Central Statistics Office, CSO, review of the status of the approved housing bodies. One of the issues that caused real difficulty and eventually forced approved housing bodies on balance sheet across the water was a view of too much Government control of the sector. While the review taking place of our approved housing body sector is on the basis of the current regulations I would urge the Minister to be cautious about following the heavy-handed regulatory approach in Britain that has caused such difficulty for the designation.

Finally, there is a need to ensure the increased level of financial risk that those tier 3 approved housing bodies are being expected to take on, a result of the increased stock, and low in finance, is adequately provided for in the regulations.

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