David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am going to get to that in a couple of minutes. I want to come now to the issue of Traveller accommodation. Alarm bells went off in my head earlier when Mr. McCarthy spoke of an expert group being established. Frankly, I could not care less what the expert group states. I am sick of expert groups. Mr. McCarthy is the Accounting Officer before us. He is the person responsible for making sure policy is implemented. Setting up an expert group is a classic Civil Service governmental response to a problem. It will discuss the problem until the cows come home, there will be a report at some stage and then we will discuss that but nothing changes. Money is allocated to local authorities on the basis of need for Traveller accommodation and it is not being spent. I want to know from Mr. McCarthy, as the Accounting Officer, why that is still happening and what he and his Department have done. I am not asking what some expert group might say in the future or its opinions. I am sure they are wonderful. I want to know what Mr. McCarthy and his Department have done in response to what is a real problem. Local authorities are given a budget on the basis of need and it is not being spent.