Mr. John McCarthy:

On the first point, we can certainly engage with Departments on the extent to which they are being made aware of investment - not to them but to their area. The Deputy mentioned the example of the Department of Education and Skills. In some cases, particularly Deputy Farrell's area, the local authority and the Department of Education and Skills have been very bound together, certainly in planning for schools. Therefore, there are some good arrangements working in some places. We can certainly consider that with other Departments.

With regard to grant schemes, I can speak only from our own point of view. I do not believe we have made any significant changes to the ways in which we have announced various housing schemes or grants, and there is certainly no intention to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We try to get the allocations out to local authorities.