Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 242: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the classification of debt being transferred from local authorities to the Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency; the status of the Agency; if debt transferred to the Agency is considered as public national debt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28961/10]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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Under the land aggregation scheme developed by my Department housing authorities may transfer residential lands on which there are outstanding loans from the Housing Finance Agency to a central agency when the loans fall due for redemption and on the basis that there are no short to medium term plans for the development of the land. In such cases it is not proposed to transfer debt from the local authorities as it is intended that the local authority will redeem the loan from the Housing Finance Agency in advance of transferring the land. Funding will be made available by my Department for this purpose.

The Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency is currently established on an administrative basis. The corporate status of the Agency will be established by legislation as soon as possible. In the interim functions in relation to the transfer of land will be undertaken by a special body set up for this purpose to be called Housing and Sustainable Communities Ltd.