David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Whatever the Secretary General has, he can send on to us as it would be useful.

Earlier the Secretary General talked about the change. One of the difficulties with building new homes is the process and the Cathaoirleach has asked how much of the overall money is spent on building new homes. We have been told that one of the problems is the four stage process. We hope to get some of the county managers, or their association, in to help us better understand that aspect . We know they have been before the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government. The Secretary General said the Department came up with a bespoke one stage process that was offered to local authorities. It was anticipated that 200 projects would avail of it but only 12 did so. He said that the reason for the low uptake was that local authorities felt they would be exposed to risk. I counter that the reason there was a four stage process in the first place was that local authorities did not want to take any of the risk. The point they make to us when we meet them, as politicians, is that unless they know they are going to get paid back fully by the Department they will not take any risk because they cannot afford to do so. Whether it is one stage or four stages the problem is the risk. The Secretary General said the process was modified and some of the risks were removed. Have all the risks been removed? Will the local authorities still feel, even with the modified version, that the element of risk is still too great for them to engage with the process?