Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is really helpful. I clarifies some things from my point of view and makes me a little less anxious, although I am concerned from the perspective of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. The witnesses are absolutely correct that there is a level of technical detail in all this. The Department has some of it and the Department of Finance has some of it, as do the approved housing bodies. I do not understand the resistance, which I clearly hear in the response to the question, as to why the witnesses would not want everybody in the room to work this out together. Otherwise, what will happen is that there will be the two Departments working their way through this, and I do not know if they get into the same room regularly enough, and then having to check. Given the imminence of the decision, surely it makes eminent sense to have a working group where the three main players are around the table trying to work this out. Even if it does not have an impact this year, and it is relatively minimal next year, which seems to be the case, at some point that accumulating expenditure by the approved housing bodies will place the Government in the position where it will have to make decisions around expenditure. If it can be put off-balance sheet, that makes people's lives easier. I would say to Mr. Smith that I do not understand the resistance to having the approved housing bodies around the table.