Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand that, and the reason is that there is probably a lot of manual work involved. That is why the local authorities speak of being harassed. If this process was automated, we would have somebody in the housing Department who could provide the number of applications processed this week and the number of applications on hand but not yet processed. That is the big issue we have with this. The form is so complicated, it can take weeks on end to process. I have never seen an application going in and being approved on the first presentation of the form because the volume of information is extensive, and rightly so. We did not even talk about the number of unprocessed applications that are in the system. If this was the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, the debate today would be about the delay in processing. We did not even talk about the cases on Mr. McCarthy's desk that have not been processed yet. I ask Mr. McCarthy to take what I am saying as referring to automation. I am not talking about manual work. I am just saying that other Departments are more up-to-date in that regard. I accept it is a big project and not something that cannot happen today, tomorrow or next year. I think Mr. McCarthy gets the point. The Department probably needs it all the more because there are 31 local authorities and we now have various approved housing bodies involved. That is probably a greater reason for the Department to have it than a single line Department, if Mr. McCarthy knows what I mean. I am just making the point. Mr. McCarthy can take it as a project to be looked at down the road.

I ask Mr. McCarthy to send to the committee the figure for the local authority housing stock at the end of each year for the past five years. Are the figures up or down? I know the buy-to-rent-----