Mr. Brian Geaney:

I thank the Chair.

As for the issues around Part 8 of the planning process and the level of submissions, I highlighted the level of submissions that were received and the TAP in the context of a scenario where the Part 8 was not approved by our own members. Cork City Council probably received the highest number of submissions in the country, whereas the number of submissions received by our colleagues in Cork County Council was in single-digits. The point is our own council did approve the TAP, despite the level of submissions and concerns that were raised by certain sections of the community. There will be a public consultation phase, which Mr. Ó Donnabháin has spoken about, to dispel the myths and misinformation out there and to address the concerns of the settled community. I refer to misinformation such as sites doubling in size. Unfortunately, people can spread misinformation for their own purposes and we need to be clear in our consultation process that misinformation such as this is not the case. We need to engage with as many people as possible to outline what the correct factual position is and then obviously, move on to prepare the report and move into council.

Cork City Council needs to provide good quality accommodation and ensure that it is well managed. People will all be aware of areas in recent years where social housing has not been managed well and has got a bad reputation as a result and that is something we are very conscious of across our total housing portfolio, as well as around the new apartment schemes we are developing in particular. The management of those accommodations going forward will be important.

As for working with Travellers, there is an Traveller interagency group. It is made up of the education and training board, ETB, the Garda, the HSE, the council and all the different agencies and advocacy groups. It meets every five or six weeks and is independently chaired. I must say that they are good meetings and progress is being made on the education front. A lot of work is being done through an equine programme at Spring Lane and the interagency group works with Travellers on practical issues that can and should be dealt with going forward. Relationships are improving and we are eager to ensure that those good relations are kept in place.