Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that response. We worked very well together on this issue when the Minister was in opposition, along with our former committee colleague, Senator Pat Casey. At some point, we must grasp the nettle of tackling the real obstacles to the delivery of Traveller-specific accommodation. It is significant that the report by the expert group on Traveller accommodation was published in 2019. While I know there has been some progress - our committee has written to the national Traveller consultative committee to get regular updates on that because the subcommittee looks at that - the big problem many of us have is that some of the key recommendations of that report around Part 8 planning powers and section 183 land disposals for ensuring the delivery of Traveller accommodation have yet to be progressed. I have not seen them in the legislative programme. They may be included in some of the Bills which the Minister intends to bring forward; he might tell us that. The difficulty is that unless we have clear legislative commitments, the core issue of providing adequate supply of Traveller-specific accommodation, in a culturally appropriate way, will not happen. This section of the Bill is the correct place to put that.

While I am not, in any way, trying to remove the obligation of local authorities in playing the lead role - they are the bodies that design and approve the five-year Traveller accommodation programmes - if this Bill is passed, which is likely given the Government majority support, the LDA will develop housing developments within the administrative areas of local authorities on lands which are not belonging to local authorities' lands. We have seen this on a number of sites. Therefore, it should have a legal obligation to explore, in conjunction with local authorities in the context of Traveller accommodation programmes, how its lands can be utilised to assist in this. If the Minister is willing to give a commitment to explore the possibility of a Government amendment on Report Stage - I know he cannot commit definitively to this - I am willing to withdraw this amendment at this point. To be clear, I will resubmit this amendment and amendment No. 91 on Report Stage, and I will press the amendments if the Minister, at that point, does not come back with something. I accept his bona fides on this, but if there is no legislative requirement, there will be no guarantee it will happen and that is why it must be in the Bill.