Ms Caroline Timmons:

I am taking a note of everything that the Senator has raised. We will do our best to get back to him. We are happy to do so insofar as we can. The issues he has raised are important. I would like to mention that we are more than empathetic to the issue that the Senator has raised of mental health. We agree with him 100% that it is an important issue. We have engaged with the Department of Health on that. It is providing the MyMind service to homeowners in the affected areas. The Senator brought attention to an important point. We can provide him with more details on that.

In relation to the levy scheme, it is the case the Government has agreed that a levy scheme would be considered. At the moment, the Department of Finance is considering how it might be worked and whether it can be brought under the Finance Bill 2022. However, I do not have anything more to say about that at the present time. We can update the Senator in due course as matters develop. The Minister has expressed in the past that he is keen, just as the Senator is, to get to the bottom of the issue and to pursue wrongdoers in this respect. It was agreed in November that senior counsel would be brought in review the matter. The Department has been working in the background to develop some terms of reference. We will look to progress that matter with the Minister as soon as we can. We will try to get the Bill to the end point. Then there are other matters we have to pursue in that respect.

I will briefly discuss the other matters. Deputy Ó Broin mentioned the appeals panel earlier. I wanted to point out that the Public Appointments Service, PAS, will deal with the appeals panels. It will be an independent process. We will make sure the criteria reflect that. The Senator mentioned that the local authority that is responsible for the process must be resourced. We already have many processes in place whereby local authorities need resources. We are conscious of that in our Department. If there is a need for extra resources, we will look at that in conjunction with the local authorities, which will be able to inform us of where they stand on that front. We are happy enough on that. I apologise to the Chair, because I can see the time going. We will come back on the other issues----