Mr. Paul Benson:

For clarity, the new social housing support application form will not include an ethnic identifier. It is still not possible, legally, to do that. Ethnicity is not a relevant factor when it comes to assessing whether a person or family is eligible for social housing supports and it cannot be collected on that basis. We have enough legal provision to allow us to collect a Traveller identifier and to include a Traveller identifier on the form because it is a requirement under the 1988 Act that local authorities identify and count the number of Travellers in their areas and those who need accommodation. That gives us the legal basis. The Traveller identifier will be just that. It will be optional as to whether Travellers want to identify. There is no compulsion involved but once they do, we will be able to link people who have identified as Travellers with their accommodation choice, which has been a difficult process heretofore. Without that baseline information, it is very difficult for local authorities to plan the provision of accommodation. It will certainly close off that gap. We hope that amending regulations will be introduced and the new form will be in place this year. That is the starting point of positive development and a lot of good work that can be done subsequent to it.