Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had my speech ready and I was very much going to praise the Minister.

It is a pleasure to welcome the Minister. I acknowledge the important work he and his Department are doing. This is the first time I can say that I have a Minister opposite me who knows what he is doing and who is listening and consulting. The way the Minister is listening to questions at this meeting is important, as is the knowledge he has displayed in respect of his brief. He is encouraging people to work together and I very much welcome that.

I do have a major criticism, but not of the Minister or his Department. The real tragedy here is the families that will again be homeless in places such as Dublin tonight. Every one of those families would be in an apartment or a house if those units which NAMA had offered to the local authorities in Dublin had been taken up. Nationally, there were 6,700 houses offered by NAMA to local authorities and approximately 2,500 of them were taken up. The Dublin local authorities, to their shame, refused more apartments or houses than they took up. They refused 800 and took up approximately 600. That is the reality of homelessness, but it is something we must deal with. My concern is whether the Minister-----