Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many of Senator Boyhan's points echo my opening questions about the local government audit. I ask the witnesses to revisit that, as Senator Boyhan asked. The second area I hope the witnesses would consider having NOAC look at, though I appreciate it has a considerable amount on its agenda, is transparency about applications for housing, between the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and local authorities. I cannot tell the witnesses the number of times councillors or I have been told by local government officials that it is with the Department and by the Department that it is with local government. There is work to do on that because of the onus on us to deliver supply. All of the policy tools are on the table. There is no excuse for local authorities not to build. The money and instruments are there. We cannot have any lack of transparency in that process. It is an area that the witnesses might look at to provide transparency for local authority members and an audit of transactions in the area of housing applications. I do not expect the witnesses to have an answer here. It is a suggestion that they might consider.