Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 222: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the reason a bank (details supplied) is the only financial institution available to affordable housing applicants; if he will seek other banking institutions to make their services available under this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15727/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has been involved in extensive discussions and negotiations for some time with a number of private lending institutions with a view to those institutions providing mortgage finance, subject to their normal lending criteria, to applicants who have been allocated an affordable housing unit for purchase under Part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000-2004 or the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2002.

While agreement has been reached to date with just one of the main financial institutions, discussions are ongoing with a number of other lenders with the intention of securing their agreement to the provision by them of mortgage finance for affordable housing. I hope these discussions can be concluded in the near future.