Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will cut Mr. Cummins short because I have another question. I worked in Cork City Council with some brilliant officials, to be fair. The point being made by Mr. Cummins may tie in with a point made earlier by my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin. He referred to having a dedicated full-time senior official in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to deal with this issue.

Should there be a senior official in local authorities to tie in the point? That is the issue if we are going to work with the Traveller community. It is so segmented and broken up that we are not delivering. The point Mr Cummins made about getting everyone involved in one room was very similar to a group in which I was involved in Cork years ago. We had local authority officials, councillors, the Traveller community, the settled community, community gardaí and the HSE. That is the kind of thing we should be looking for.

Ms Murtagh touched on the caravan loan scheme earlier. I was contacted by a lady this morning whose caravan has no bathroom and no shower. It is freezing cold. She is now facing another winter. She has been in this accommodation for six years and cannot get a replacement. What are we hoping will come out of this for people like Margaret? What should come out of this?