Mr. John McCarthy:

We are working through the Office of Government Procurement to attract and give the industry a sense of the level of ambition. There has been much work over the course of 2016 and the framework has been in place since just before Christmas. I am sure some of the people mentioned by the Deputy may very well have participated in that process.

The Deputy indicated that when he spoke with local authorities they reported they have no funding. The funding for housing has increased very significantly. Last year it increased to €940 million across the country for housing and this year it is going up to €1.3 billion. We have given a very clear message to local authorities that we are in the business of progressing projects as expeditiously as we can. There is an overall commitment of €5.5 billion under the Rebuilding Ireland plan up to 2021, so there is forward visibility for local authorities that commitment to funding exists to get projects delivered. That is the business we are in and it is the business we want all local authorities to be in.