Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is saying that normally with plans or strategies the executive - the officials - will do a draft and the members will look at that and maybe amend it. There should be a consultation with the members and the members should set the broad parameters of the strategy. In Oireachtas committees, we discuss stuff. Some of the officials and the secretariat will write it up into reports, but it is based on discussions we have here. I do not agree with the idea it is technically difficult or problematic for elected representatives to set out the broad thrust or parameters of a housing strategy. In fact, it is critical that they do.

I am not trying to exclude officials from involvement in putting it together. These committees would not produce coherent reports without the fantastic work of the officials but there is a division of labour in all Oireachtas committees, which is that the members choose priority issues and discuss them, often with great assistance from the officials about how to break up the discussion, marshal the different material and so on. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of the elected representatives to make decisions and recommendations, which is often how these reports get published. There might be a draft we work on but the recommendations of the report we produce will be made by the elected members, sometimes on the advice of officials and sometimes just from their own thoughts and ideas. It is right and proper that from the outset the elected councillors should be part of the process of putting together a housing strategy. That does not preclude the involvement, assistance and support of full-time officials in the executive of the council. Of course they will be involved.

Does the Minister recognise there is merit in that thought? With the best will in the world, officials might be looking at statistics. Sometimes they have knowledge on the ground but sometimes they do not. They may look at figures, reports, Government policy and so on, but what councillors should be bringing to the table in these discussions is in-depth knowledge relating particular areas, people's needs, the issues they are hearing about from those who are in housing need and communities in general. In the context of putting together the best possible housing strategy for the most important and pressing issue this country faces at the moment, it would make sense that the elected representatives should be in on the ground floor in terms of putting that strategy together and setting the general parameters and objectives relating to it.