Ms Caroline Timmons:

The Deputy is absolutely right. An issue was identified throughout the course of Rebuilding Ireland and into Housing for All. There is a section in the latter about how to fund small builders in rural areas to keep regional development coming. HBFI was set up by the Department of Finance a couple of years back to do specifically that. What it does is it goes out with the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, to the regions and encourages local builders to attend meetings and talk to it about the finances it can give them.

Deputy O'Connor is correct that there is an issue with the pillar banks. What HBFI will do, if a builder is refused finance by the pillar banks, is examine the development and help to bring it forward. It has been quite successful in that regard. There is a good amount of publication on the website on the developers it is supporting and what the spread is around the country. We have put forward a solution in Housing for All with HBFI in that respect, but there is also a working group on investment at the level of Housing for All and it is chaired at Secretary General level. We will keep an eye on whether the level of investment is available to those types of builders as well as the larger builders. Does that answer the question?