Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Fitzpatrick for her questions. Regarding the expert report, and the 32 recommendations contained within it, one of the biggest challenges that I and the Department have faced is the absence of clear and salient data on the number of Traveller families in our country and the types of housing accommodation they require to meet their needs. That is why, through our expert report, we will shortly have a Traveller-specific identifier on our social housing application forms. In addition, we are also working with the Central Statistics Office, CSO, on the upcoming census to ensure that Travellers are a key component of the work that will be carried out in that regard and that we will as a result get better data to inform our decision-making within the Department. It has been a big challenge. The programme board I have established is monitoring the situation and working on this aspect. As I pointed out as well, the board has taken 18 of the 32 recommendations to address first and has included those in its work programme. That is a significant body of work and it will unlock many of the blockages in the system. The board has the full support of my Department to do that.

Turning to the budgetary measures, we have been increasing our budget year-on-year in recent years. It is not yet back to the scale of the years before the recession, but we are working on increasing it. As the Senator said, we spent all our money in this area last year. We are hoping to repeat that this year. I corresponded with all the local authority managers and chief executives to remind them of their responsibilities, and that of the local authorities, to the Traveller community in carrying out their duty as the chief executives of the local authorities. We are working hard to do that.

Moving on to my role in the county development plans, that is clearly set out in legislation. The Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, is adjudicating and reviewing all the county development plans to ensure they conform with our Traveller accommodation programme and meet the needs of the travelling community. I note that the Planning Regulator in his recent report stated that around 94% of those plans have specific objectives contained within them. However, we still have a significant amount of work to do in that regard. The programme board will be working on reforming the Part 8 process concerning the emergency powers afforded to the chief executives of local authorities. Streamlining those powers would require primary legislation. The group is leading and implementing that work. It is recommending to me the work to be done on each of those 32 recommendations. The group has set out its programme of work and strong voices from the Traveller community are on that programme board. An increase in the number of Traveller voices on the board was sought and granted. We have, therefore, shown our energy in this regard and our commitment to work with the people involved to ensure that we get all those recommendations implemented.