Mr. Michael McCarthy:

That is a great point. I think the Deputy broached this point the last time we were before the joint Oireachtas committee. At a national level, one of the performance indicator headings is around housing maintenance costs. Our role in that is to look at the cost per unit and to compare that with different local authorities. I said to Deputy Cian O’Callaghan that the structure or the format by which local authorities deal with maintenance or with reallocating housing, and taking out the necessary repairs, may differ from local authority to local authority. From our perspective, performance indicator H4 relates, which is the housing maintenance cost, varies. For example, in Cork city it is €1,385 per housing unit while in Carlow it is €510. That will vary. Obviously, as you go into the more urbanised centres it gets more expensive. There is an issue with the increased cost of building materials, etc. Building inflation has been crazy for the last couple of years anyway and that has a direct impact on it. Ultimately, however, we do not have a direct role in how the local authority should respond to that. We establish what they are doing well and what they are not doing well, and we showcase that in our reports.