Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the members of the AILG. I found their work very worthwhile when I was elected a new councillor two years ago and I enjoyed attending the AILG training conferences.

I agree with most of the comments from the witnesses. When I was a councillor, and even since I became a Deputy, 80% of all my representations are based on housing and homelessness. It is a nationwide problem. I have a few questions, although I believe I know the answer to one of them already because the witnesses spoke about converting attics. Does the AILG see merit in extending the current stock of local authority houses to facilitate tenants with overcrowding issues? Applying for a transfer is not feasible any more because one must wait too long. It could be a short-term solution to add a bedroom and bathroom, perhaps, for 30,000 to 40,000 of such tenants. It would certainly make a difference.

Second, does the AILG agree that the HAP scheme is not working to its full capacity and must be amended in order to encourage landlords to take on HAP tenants?

Third, representatives from the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, appeared before the committee recently. NAMA offered 6,500 units to local authorities throughout the country, but the take-up was only 2,500 units. That meant 4,000 units were not accepted. I believe Galway was the only local authority to take its full allocation. Perhaps the witnesses would offer their thoughts on that.

With regard to Traveller accommodation, do the witnesses accept that some councils are very slow or reluctant to draw down the finances available to them? There is a perception among the public that there is no political will in the local authorities to deal with these issues.