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

Following engagement with the credit union sector on proposals for credit unions to provide funding for the provision of social housing, the Central Bank undertook a review of the relevant investment framework in 2017 and our Department fully engaged in all parts of that.

On foot of this review, revised regulations commenced on 1 March 2018. The revised regulations included the addition of investments in tier 3 approved housing bodies, AHBs, as a permitted investment class for credit unions. Deputy O'Brien is correct in saying the credit unions have been very clear that they have a lot of money they want to invest in housing schemes, so that facility was put in place. As such, since 1 March 2018, credit unions are permitted to provide funding through a regulated investment vehicle to tier 3 AHBs for the provision of social housing.

While it is a matter for the credit unions themselves to develop specific special purpose vehicles, SPVs, to facilitate this, my Department did inform the credit unions' representative bodies that it was funding a project being undertaken by the Irish Council for Social Housing, ICSH, to examine the establishment of SPVs to facilitate investment in the sector. The Department put the bodies in contact with the ICSH with a view to those bodies examining further how they could invest in the sector.

Work has been ongoing between the ICSH, a number of larger tier 3 AHBs and their financial advisers on the development of a vehicle or mechanism for delivering private financing for AHBs in respect of social housing. This project involved a number of phases, including engagement with a range of financial institutions, having regard also to the recent reclassification decision by EUROSTAT of the larger tier 3 AHBs earlier this year.

I understand that significant progress has been made with the project, with one AHB having already established a special purpose vehicle. Further work is ongoing to enable the establishment of other SPVs and it is expected that there will be further developments in this regard over the coming months.

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