Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I shall begin by welcoming Mr. John McCarthy and congratulating him on his appointment as Secretary General. I look forward to having a productive engagement with him, just as we had with his predecessor, Ms Tallon. I also welcome his officials here today.

I would like to discuss a range of the topics that the Secretary General mentioned in his opening statement and that the Comptroller and Auditor General has also dealt with. I shall begin with one of the most pressing societal problems at the moment, which is housing. We are all aware of the current crisis in housing. Last week I visited my local authority, and I can vouch that there is a real and genuine fear among people who work at the front line in housing offices about homelessness. Obviously we must all tackle the issue.

We have seen from the statement and the accounts that there has been a significant drop in financial provision for social housing from 2007 to 2012. I want to get the Secretary General's take and the Department's view on the seriousness of the social housing crisis. The issue has come to light in recent months. At what stage did the Department realise or recognise that we had a crisis?