Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Central Statistics Office, CSO, is responsible under EU law for the reporting of Government finance statistics, including deficit and debt. It is currently undertaking a review to determine whether the approved housing body, AHB, sector or part of it should be included as part of the general Government sector and whether AHBs should be classified as on-balance sheet or off-balance sheet for Government accounting purposes in accordance with EU rules.

Under a previous review of the sector in 2014, the CSO classified these entities as being outside of the general Government sector. It indicated at the time that the status of these bodies would be reviewed if there was a change in the relationship with the housing authorities, that is, local authorities, or any other Government body. In October 2016, EUROSTAT requested the CSO to review the classification of AHBs expressing the view that the role of Government financing should be given greater weight in the classification decision than had been the case at the time of the 2014 review.

My Department has been engaging with the CSO on the review while respecting the independence of that office. We are keeping the matter of the potential reclassification of the AHB sector or part of it and its implications under continuous assessment and the Cabinet was also briefed on the issue in July 2017. However, until the CSO's examination is completed and the factors underlying the position to be adopted by the CSO become clear, I will not be in a position to assess the full impact of any decision arising from the review.

It is not the case that there is an over-reliance on AHBs. We have stressed at every local authority meeting with councillors of all parties and officials that we expect local authorities to be the lead in delivering housing. The AHB sector accounts for about one third of the planned delivery over the next four or five years under Rebuilding Ireland. That is very clear with less than 17,000 direct build, acquire or lease units through all the various schemes.

Regarding the pipeline of projects, the Deputy's concern is what the local authorities will do if this becomes an issue. We have clearly told local authorities to bring forward a greater pipeline of projects across the board. They have a pipeline of about 12,000 units. To put the Deputy's mind at ease on this issue, we have asked them to at least treble that so we have asked them to put them into the projects pipeline so the capacity to deliver will not be affected by any decision by the CSO or EUROSTAT on this issue in the year ahead. To be very clear, local authorities are the main body to deliver social housing on behalf of the State.

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