Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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17. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the possible redesignation of approved housing bodies by EUROSTAT and the CSO; the contingency plans in place to deal with this in order to meet his social housing targets; and his further plans to assist approved housing bodies secure land in order to meet their social housing targets as per Rebuilding Ireland. [52162/17]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is currently undertaking a review to determine whether the Approved Housing Body sector or part of it should be included as part of the General Government sector and whether AHBs should be classified as ‘on-balance sheet’ or ‘off-balance sheet’ for Government accounting purposes, in accordance with EU rules.

Under a previous review of the sector in 2014, the CSO classified these entities as being outside of the General Government sector.  However, in October 2016, Eurostat requested the CSO to review the classification of AHBs, expressing the view that the role of government financing should be given greater weight in the classification decision than had been the case at the time of the 2014 review. 

While respecting the independence of the CSO and Eurostat my Department has made a number of detailed submissions and has engaged in on-going dialogue with CSO on the matter. The CSO has indicated that it is likely to conclude its review later this month and will then make its submission to Eurostat.

Until the CSO's examination is completed, and factors underlying the position to be adopted by the CSO become clear, I will not be in a position to assess the full impact of any decision made by the CSO.

With regard to the role of Approved Housing Bodies, I am committed to seeing them continuing to play a major role in the delivery of social housing, in line with the policy and targets set out in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan.