Mr. Michael Carey:

I thank the Senator for his questions and his comments about Bord Bia. I agree it is an extraordinary organisation. He asked when I first engaged with this process. I initially engaged with it approximately a month ago. I did not apply when the role was advertised under the Public Appointments Service system because I was still in my role as chairman of Bord Bia at that time. I stepped down from that role, after six and a half years, in the past month. The process I have gone through has included a number of discussions and meetings with the Minister. I approached the Minister. I actively showed interest in taking this role. I believe my background, my experience and my ability to manage and lead boards to provide some structure and to focus on results can be applied to this issue, which is of huge importance to Ireland. I think all of those skills and experiences are entirely transferable. I met the executive director of the agency in recent days. Other than that, I have not been engaged with the organisation. I have a reasonable level of understanding of what the agency does, what its role is and how it plays its part in solving this problem. I think a very detailed engagement will be necessary in the coming weeks to get fully up to speed with those issues. The Deputy concluded by asking how I would define success at the end of my term in this role if I am appointed to it. I would like to see real, substantial and genuine progress in addressing the major issues that are facing Irish society in the area of housing and homelessness. I outlined all of those issues in my initial statement. Clear targets for the agency need to be agreed. The agency needs to have the right resources and the right engagement with people to give it a chance of being an outstanding agency that fully plays its part in moving along this problem.