Mr. Brian Dillon:

Ms Casey deals with housing that has been bought and sold and will respond to the highly relevant questions the Deputy asked.

The funding basis for Cena is the same as for any other approved housing body. We do not have any central funding but we can draw down funding from the capital assistance scheme, CAS, to either purchase houses or build homes. We have built four homes in Tullamore, which are occupied, and we are building five homes in Galway. Both of those developments have been funded through CAS.

Other people ask relevant questions about all the other issues that need to be fixed because of failed housing policy. We must deal with those as well, but we do not have the money to do so. We are working at it as we go along. We go through the normal public procurement processes, but we have influence to ensure that Travellers are getting employment and that there is an open and friendly way to ensure that young Travellers in particular areas are getting that work. There is much that we can do to influence the process, and we are learning that as we go along. It is a new world for everyone.

I am sure that Ms Casey will back me up when I say that Cena will be successful for as long as it can build and maintain a very strong Traveller voice to control matters. That is the number one priority for Cena. Under our constitution, our aim is for Cena's tenants to own Cena, control its board and become involved in it, which is happening. It is a kind of awareness-building process.

We always struggle for money. We have had significant help through the Housing Agency and the Department giving us some resources towards central co-ordination, but we must wait until we build up - I never know the economic terms - the platform that we need to reach in terms of our rental income. We will act as landlords. What we are saying to Travellers is that they are paying rent to Cena and paying for some other Travellers to get homes. There is a serious ownership aspect to that and our money model. However, our funding model is no different from any other AHB's, nor can it be, given that there are constraints on us.

I will ask Ms Casey deal with the Deputy's question on homes in Galway, Limerick and so on. That is where the matter of discrimination, which we just touched on, comes into things.

She asked a significant question about future planning. There is hardly any example in Ireland of three or four Traveller homes being built in what is called "group housing" where, if we push forward 15 years, there are not suddenly 22 families living there in appalling conditions. Even though the homes might have won a prize for Traveller accommodation at the start, they have become a ghetto. Usually, any investment afterwards is about putting a wall around it so that no one can see it. In Cena, we are having a Traveller-to-Traveller conversation about this. Where people get a home with Cena, we immediately start a discussion about what will happen when their children reach 16, 17 or 18 years of age. We do not wait until they reach that age. When there is no other choice, three or four caravans must be in there. That is good in some ways, in that people will be together, but people must have control over their own environment and destinies. They must be able to see whether other properties can be secured where they can be close and keep their ties without falling into seriously overcrowded and underserviced conditions. There is an ongoing discussion. It is not one that we wait to start until someone gets married and pulls in a caravan. It is not easy, but we have noticed something. There is a buy and renew scheme for individual or separate plots in rural areas. We find that brilliant because Travellers are saying that they can buy something that is dilapidated, pull down money and do it up. If they can get three homes that are within a certain radius, some families tell us that they would rather have that. There is an assumption that everyone wants to live on top of one another. They usually do not. Ms Casey might contradict me, but I believe that has been our experience to date.

Ms Casey might discuss how we are purchasing houses in Limerick, Kerry and so forth.