John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ms Nic Aongusa in her opening contribution referred to the fast-track scheme for developments of up to 15 housing units and a budget of less than €2 million. How frequently is that used? It has been indicated by the Minister that there is capacity to increase the size of the scheme. Have local authorities concerns about entering the scheme whereby if there are unforeseen eventualities, they cannot go back to the Department for additional funding and so on? How is the scheme working? If it were expanded, would it address the concerns local authorities have in respect of risk and so on?

Do local authorities conduct an audit of vacant or unused private accommodation? The committee has been presented with evidence of the number of unoccupied private properties.

It would be remiss of me not to relay a comment, having met a group of homeless people with Focus Ireland yesterday. One of the comments they make is about the great difficulty they have accessing the phone service for homeless people. They all tell their own story but one of the comments they make is that when they are dealing with local authorities they would like to try to have a relationship with an individual rather than meeting different people and starting their case every day. I know it is not always practical. They were just some of the things relayed to us yesterday and I thought it would be remiss of me not to mention it in this forum today. What was the point of meeting them if we did not identify some of their issues?

The witnesses have heard a whole range of supplementary questions so perhaps we will start with the Department.