Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Every Committee of Public Accounts operates differently but I will outline what we did in the past. A comprehensive report is produced following a body of work. In some cases, Departments say they have noted our recommendations but we all know that means they accept what we said, they say they have heard it and they will keep things under review but then they do nothing. We all know the language. It is fine when we reach the point where they accept a recommendation.

There is a suggestion that recommendation A.6 is unclear. This is one that comes up repeatedly when there is an underspend by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government on Traveller-specific accommodation. Anybody who has been a member of a local authority will know very well that moneys provided for Traveller-specific accommodation can only be spent in a very defined way and not on traditional housing. Every year there is an underspend, yet there is a group of people who find it almost impossible to find accommodation. Indeed, a report was released in the last few days that shows people's attitudes to the Traveller community. I am surprised that the Department does not understand our recommendation. I think we need to go back on that if the moneys cannot be spent in a particular way. Every year, it looks like the local authorities do not deliver Traveller-specific accommodation. We should begin by discovering, for example, whether the Traveller community wants certain types of accommodation.

If the money is there for a halting site or a particular group housing scheme, for example, it can be spent on it. Every year, however, there is an underspend and I am not happy that the Department is coming back and saying it is unclear.

There are a number of other recommendations in the report regarding, for example, the Analysys Mason report on the metropolitan area networks. We spent much time on broadband and on the metropolitan area networks contract. A report sat for a couple of years on the Minister's desk. When he came into the Committee of Public Accounts, a reduction in the cost of broadband was announced the same day. Therefore, that report was important in having an effect on the price of broadband. It was to be reviewed within a period of two years. That was in 2017, and we see here that the answer to the recommendation is "No". There either is or is not going to be a review. It was an important recommendation.

A number of things in this report would merit a detailed amount of discussion. In fact, these kinds of reports would often have taken up most of the time for correspondence at a particular meeting. When we have done a body of work, we look for action to be taken. Having taken the trouble to do a report and write to the Department to seek its response to it, we want our work to have an effect or an outcome. I do not believe we can just make a recommendation and move on because there are many elements in this report we could go back to the Department on.