Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

Yes. There is much potential to take people off lists through this and I am thinking of ways to advance it further. Very few local authorities have publicly advertised the scheme. The local authorities in Senator Coffey's area in Waterford have made no requests to my Department for the schemes. I do not have the figures here but I am sure that in both those authorities there are many people on the lists that could be accommodated under the long-term leasing scheme. We will go into this further, but €20 million of the capital budget is available to the local authority system to house from 2,000 to 4,000 people because rents are coming down in 2009. There is no reason this number cannot be increased in 2010 or 2011 if the scheme is successful.

Senator Butler commented on the move to social housing and raised the figure of 50%. I do not disagree with his comments, although the current maximum is 20%. As applications come in we are considering the matter. I do not want to create ghettoes again, as somebody mentioned, where all the estates would be made up of social housing. In so far as is possible, I want to maintain sustainable communities with a mix of private, affordable and social housing, if that is possible.