Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In case our guests are losing hope when they are talking about talking shops, everyone here has been a breath of fresh air. They have been fine and blunt. I like that. There was no mincing words; they all threw it up on the table and that is now on the record. There are people here and media that watches this stuff. The way our guests are talking is the way it should be said.

The caravan loan scheme is just not fit for purpose. It does not make sense and it is not working. As John says, 32 families in Cork are on a waiting list for the scheme.

It just does not make sense. The witnesses spoke about talking shops and committees and implementing things. One thing we are very strong about here is accountability and responsibility. We are going to have to make people listen. It is their job, but a person may be failing at his or her job. If a person did not turn up on Monday for five weeks on a construction job, he or she would be sacked. Somebody has the responsibility to do that because he or she has been given that responsibility. We are trying to get positive results as fast as we can to show that things can change when the political will is there, but also the political backing that goes all the way down to local councils. Somebody in the local council has to be responsible. We do not know whether they are getting the full backing of,l say, management or senior management within those councils. I have worked on councils. In fairness to them, the majority of people are really genuine, but they are restricted as well. I do not know whether it is a policy issue. This committee has the power to make policy change. We also have the power to call in any local authority and put the questions the witnesses want to them to ask why X is not being done, why it has not been done, who is responsible for it, who will take ownership of it now and whether people can be given a timeline on when things will change. We can do that, but it is only by working together that we will be able to do it. That is why I find this very beneficial. I am very frustrated about it. As Ms O'Donoghue said, we could be here for hours.

I have worked with settled Travellers who live on housing estates and with families who have been touched with autism. Despite that fact that they are very grateful to have a council house, even those houses are not fit for purpose. Children are dropping out the top windows of two-storey houses when they should not be in a two-storey house. It is by the witnesses coming to this committee and throwing the story out on the table that we now have the information to go back and ask those hard questions and ask people not to give us excuses anymore but tell us why it is not being done. I would like to keep in contact with the witnesses because the more I listen in this committee, the more frustrated and angry I get. We know the solutions are there, and pardon the term, but I think people out there do not have the cojones to take the responsibility to change.