Maria Bailey (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am always careful not to mention names. That the loan scheme has been a success should be acknowledged. We should recognise that there will be a larger demand for it, that the Minister will be seeking further funding and that there will be continuity. Rather than the negative spin that is a constant when discussing housing, the scheme should be commended.

Since the outset of Rebuilding Ireland, the committee has done a significant amount of work. The Department has taken some of that on board. Perhaps the criticism stems from the amount of information that we get from it. That the Department provides so much detail and information opens the Minister up to wider questioning. I commend the Minister on the amount of information we are being given, including the briefing that was provided to us in private session last week.

Regarding delivery, targets are always to be surpassed, not met. Some are surpassed and some are not. I welcome that the Minister is examining those that are not and that extra support will be provided in this regard. The background to all of this is how, in the first year or so, the Government needed to get staffing back in place within the 31 local authorities, get the construction industry back up and running, and give certainty to the financial sector. We have a skills shortage and are still not half way through Rebuilding Ireland. I have criticised certain aspects of Rebuilding Ireland, but I must recognise where work has been done and that information has been shared with us.

The period in question has seen various protests. I was in favour of water charges and Dún Laoghaire had a high compliance rate. Where infrastructure needs to get up and running on sites, many of the deficits are found in water services. They have to be paid for somehow. No one ever links the two. When we make criticisms about sites sitting around because of water deficits, maybe these people should reconsider the water charges that they wanted to abolish. Climate change is coming down the road as well.

Those were more observations than questions, but the Minister might comment on them.