Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be really quick rather than leave that hanging. I will mention couple of things and I will endeavour to be brief. To deal with Deputy Ó Snodaigh's point, we might look again at chapter 1 of Part 7 on page 403. I would contest that it is well covered there in having "regard to the overall housing needs of the population of its functional area".

The national planning statement will be very important. It is up to this committee, obviously, as we go through it to pass that. The national planning statement will include, let us say, for the planning guidelines for the Gaeltacht to become a national planning statement. As I said earlier, we are going to work on that. That in itself will be very important. It does say that, obviously, to quote housing and social integration. That is in there as well.

What I will say to the Deputy on the social housing piece, and I am not going to delay us here, is that there is complexity. I know from visiting south Connemara that people are on a waiting list in a local authority area. It can be more difficult for an English language speaker or someone who just speaks English than someone who is bilingual or who is an Irish speaker. I have seen on the ground in south Connemara how that was managed through an approved housing body, AHB, but it is not without its complexity. Someone could be put ahead of someone else on a social housing list - I am not saying we are saying that - when allocating a home, for argument's sake. That is it in real terms on the ground now.