Mr. Paul Benson:

There is one AHB, Cena, with which the Deputy will be familiar, that was established to provide accommodation for Travellers. It has been acting more in an advisory capacity. We are currently working with it to build capacity to deliver projects. It recently completed a project in County Offaly. We hope that is the start of a process. We will resource it. We are agreeing the terms of references for the service level agreement to put staff into Cena and then place those staff within local authorities and AHBs to build expertise and capacity within Cena.

On the wider issue of AHBs, there are several housing bodies that are active on Traveller accommodation and have done a significant amount through the years. There are others that do not do any such work. We have raised this with the Irish Council for Social Housing and will shortly be meeting it to discuss the best way forward here and whether that is to target a few AHBs that will be active in this area, as there are a few AHBs active in the homeless area, or that every AHB should be doing a piece. That will be part of the discussion, as will how we move it forward when a decision is made and what is the best way to approach that.