Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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413. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the extent to which approved housing bodies had a role in determining the suitability of properties the National Asset Management Agency offered to local authorities for social housing, given that most residential properties leased through the National Asset Residential Property Services Limited or acquired from the agency were transferred to approved housing bodies. [10458/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In December 2011, the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) announced that it would facilitate the provision of accommodation for social housing. In the period since, a Steering Group, comprising my Department, NAMA and the Housing Agency, has been working with housing authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) towards achieving this objective.

The properties under consideration are part of the security for loans that NAMA has acquired. In the majority of cases, properties remain in the ownership of the original borrowers. The remaining properties are controlled by receivers appointed by NAMA.

When a property has been identified by NAMA as potentially available for social housing use, the Housing Agency works with local authorities to determine, in the first instance, whether there is a demand for social housing in the area, and secondly, that there is and would continue to be an appropriate mix of housing tenures in the area, and that segregation within developments and specific areas is avoided.

Once a demand has been confirmed by the appropriate local authority, NAMA makes contact with the relevant property owner/receiver to determine if the properties are still available and to discuss how these properties can be best utilised. Properties that are deemed suitable may be leased or purchased by local authorities or Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) through engagement with the property owners or, on their behalf, appointed insolvency practitioners, facilitated by NAMA. Assuming properties are still available, arrangements are made for local authorities and interested AHBs to inspect and then secure as many of the suitable properties as possible for social housing purposes using the full range of social housing delivery methods .