Mr. Jack Keyes:

I will start with Deputy Coppinger's questions and then answer the Vice Chairman's. Deputy Coppinger has raised some fundamental issues and I do not have all the answers today. I have heard her clearly and I am aware of people with stage 1 or amber status and the difficulties they may be having. Moving onto the board, I will be looking at how that demarkation is made and drawing conclusions about whether the funding is adequate. It may be that the brief for the board to address those may have to be changed by way of legislation. I am not sure yet but that is my impression. Certainly, I hear the Deputy clearly. One of the early things I would like to do is visit the estates as she suggests. I have only seen one house being remediated as part of the preparation for the application but to go out and see some of the stage 1 houses, which I have not seen yet would be particularly interesting. I would be very happy and willing to do that.

I am not sure about the history of the fund and the levy. The funding comes directly from the Exchequer now. Communication and advertising was mentioned earlier and it is key. People deserve to know what is available. There is a good news story here as well as a bad news one. We have done a great job as a State to address this as well as the fact that there is a big gap there. Sometimes, we do not tell people what we do when we are focused on the problems. I will be looking at that early in the course of my tenure.

My vision is to try to help the people who are in this awful situation, balanced with the funding that is made available to the board. It is an awful position for people to find themselves in. The board has done a good job so far but we will be reassessing its role and efficiency if I go in.