Mr. Jack Keyes:

I thank the Vice Chairman and the members for their comprehensive questions.

Although I have studied the workings of the board and the reports as best I can, members will appreciate I am on a learning curve because I am just going into the job. I would not claim to have comprehensive answers to many of the questions. I will answer with the knowledge I have and will be more than happy to come back at any time if the committee wants an update on the workings of the board. In respect of being busy, I do not have any big job. While I was in the job of county manager, that was very full time. For the past few years I have been working on the boundary committees, which became a very demanding task in that there were 28,000 submissions in Roscommon which for government in Ireland was an incredible figure. Each had to be processed and considered. That was a massive task that ended last autumn. My role in Cavan Institute is also demanding because the college is very important to the area. That will finish in the autumn. With those two big jobs ended I am confident I will have time for this work.

At the start of the scheme there were 1,798 units and by now 1,309 are either completed or included in the scheme. There is not a large number waiting. The ones that are waiting are going through the stream of eight stages, apart from the 101 that have been rejected to date. In June, for example, 37 applications came in. There has been a constant flow for the past two years. Although there is a bit of a gap it is not significant from what I have seen but I will not really know until I get in there. The flow in is almost equivalent to what is being remediated and processed.