Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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303. To ask the Minister for Finance the status of his Department's efforts to establish an off balance sheet mechanism to provide a housing investment fund for the purposes of significant housing development as promised under action 2.4 of rebuilding Ireland; the reason the timeline set down in Rebuilding Ireland has not been met; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28265/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The NTMA have confirmed to my officials that it has not been possible to meet the deadline for the Rebuilding Ireland Action. Despite this in the social and affordable market, in line with Rebuilding Ireland commitments, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and a number of key Government Departments are continuing to examine the feasibility of establishing a funding vehicle, in conjunction with the private sector, which could facilitate investment in social and affordable housing. The objective is to assess the feasibility of an 'off-balance' mechanism to facilitate investment in social housing which is additional to that being provided directly by the State and which does not impact on the General Government Balance. 

Whilst a major objective of any such funding vehicle is to leverage additionality in terms of social housing supply, work to date indicates that a substantial portion of the overall supply of new units may need to be for private housing to meet the commerciality test and to satisfy the requirements of an off-balance sheet investment model.   

Important preparatory work has been completed by ISIF in conjunction with my Department, the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, CSO and Eurostat. As part of this process there have been clarifications on the balance sheet treatment of such a fund through discussions with Eurostat, the CSO and the EIB. Further detailed work is on-going in ISIF in relation to the commercial viability of such fund and in terms of identifying investable private sector opportunities and platforms to deliver on the potential in this area.