Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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636. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the review of AHBs not signed up to the voluntary regulation code for approved housing bodies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39774/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The oversight of Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) is currently conducted through the Voluntary Regulation Code (VRC), "Building for the Future, A Voluntary Regulation Code for Approved Housing Bodies in Ireland". The VRC is overseen by the Interim Regulation Committee (IRC) supported by a Regulation Office based in the Housing Agency.

In September 2018, the Regulation Office wrote to those AHBs who were not signed up to the Code, to encourage them to do so, by reminding them that funding eligibility is limited to those AHBs signed up to and demonstrating compliance with the Code.

The priority for my Department in relation to enhancing the regulation of the AHB Sector has been to progress the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill, so that an enhanced system of statutory regulation is put in place. Now that the Bill has been published, work has commenced on a review of those AHBs that are not signed up to the voluntary code, with a view to delisting those that are inactive. The aim will be to complete this exercise ahead of the introduction of the enhanced statutory regulation which the new legislation will provide, ultimately ensuring that all active AHBs are governed by the statutory code.