Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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98. To ask the Minister for Finance if the mandate of NAMA will be changed to become a vehicle for the delivery of public and affordable housing rather than selling land and assets under its control to private investors engaging in these practices in view of the mounting evidence of widespread land hoarding and property speculation and the impact this is having on the housing crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31030/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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It is important to recognise from the outset that NAMA does not own property, rather, NAMA owns loans secured by property which is owned by its debtors. NAMA, as a lender, cannot force a borrower to take action which would reduce his or her repayment capacity, such as providing a property for social or private housing where that is not the financially optimal course of action for the debtor. To do so would compromise a borrower's capacity to repay his or her debts to NAMA and would constitute a direct breach of the borrower's property rights, protected under Article 43 of the Constitution. I am advised that directing NAMA to act counter to these obligations is not one lawfully open to me in all the current circumstances.

Furthermore, there would be many legislative, balance sheet and State aid implications in repurposing NAMA away from its existing objectives. NAMA was established with a very specific legal mandate, which was approved by the European Commission in 2010. It is important that NAMA’s role is preserved and that it completes its work in line with its original mandate.

Therefore I do not propose to change NAMA’s mandate.

That being the case, NAMA is already making a significant contribution to the supply of housing within the State where it is in a position to do so. NAMA’s residential funding programme, has delivered over 7,300 new residential units since it was announced in 2014 and is committed to facilitating the delivery of 20,000 residential units by 2020. In addition, NAMA has an established policy of identifying to Local Authorities and approved housing bodies, properties within its portfolio which may be suitable for social housing. To date 6,984 such properties have been identified, with demand confirmed for 2,717 and 2,474 delivered or committed. Part of this delivery has been through NAMA’s innovative National Asset Residential Property Services (NARPS) model, which has purchased nearly 1,300 properties from NAMA debtors and leased them on for social housing.

Finally, I wish to highlight that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government launched a number of initiatives in January of this year, including the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan and a new Affordable Purchase Scheme, each of which should make a contribution to delivering homes that are more affordable for potential buyers.