Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2002

Amendments to Housing Finance Agency Act, 1981.

17.—The Housing Finance Agency Act, 1981 (as amended by the Act of 1992), is amended—

(a) in section 4(2), by substituting the following for paragraphs (b) and (c)—

“(b) to provide moneys to enable such loans to be made by housing authorities,

(c) to provide moneys—

(i) to local authorities to be used by them for any capital purpose authorised by or under any enactment mentioned in the Schedule to this Act;

(ii) to a body standing approved of for the purposes of section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 , to be used by it in respect of the provision or management of housing accommodation as provided for in that section or in respect of other matters in relation to housing that may be determined by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, including the acquisition of land by such a body,

and

(d) to borrow money for the aforesaid purposes.”,

(b) in section 5—

(i) in paragraph (a), by deleting “or”,

(ii) in paragraph (b), by substituting “,” for “.”, and

(iii) by inserting the following after paragraph (b):

“(c) a local authority, to be used by it for any capital purpose authorised by or under any enactment mentioned in the Schedule to this Act, or

(d) a body standing approved of for the purposes of section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 , to be used by it in respect of the provision or management of housing accommodation as provided for in that section or in respect of other matters in relation to housing that may be determined by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, including the acquisition of land by such a body.”,

(c) in section 10(3), by substituting “€6,000,000,000” for “£1,500,000,000”,

(d) by inserting the following after section 10:

“Performance of borrowing function of Agency by National Treasury Management Agency.

10A.—(1) In this section ‘National Treasury Management Agency’ means the National Treasury Management Agency established by the National Treasury Management Agency Act, 1990 .

(2) (a) Subject to the prior consent of the Minister for Finance, the Agency may request the National Treasury Management Agency to perform, on its behalf, its borrowing functions under—

(i) subsections (1), (1A) (inserted by the Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Act, 1985 ) and (2) of section 10 of this Act, and

(ii) section 3 of the Borrowing Powers of Certain Bodies Act, 1996 .

(b) Where a request is made under paragraph (a) of this subsection, the National Treasury Management Agency shall perform those borrowing functions on behalf of the Agency.

(c) The National Treasury Management Agency shall exercise the function of the Agency in relation to the management of the indebtedness of the Agency incurred by the Agency under the provisions referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection on the terms and conditions that may be agreed by the National Treasury Management Agency with the Agency.

(3) The Minister for Finance may revoke his or her consent given under subsection (2) of this section.

Advances of moneys to Agency by Minister for Finance.

10B.—(1) The Minister for Finance may advance moneys from the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof to the Agency, on such terms and conditions as that Minister thinks fit, for the purposes of borrowing by the Agency under section 10(1) of this Act.

(2) Advances under subsection (1) of this section shall be repaid to the Exchequer subject to the terms and conditions that the Minister for Finance may determine.”,

and

(e) by inserting after section 18 the Schedule set out in Schedule 2.