Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. I know that. I am not having a pop, but we discussed this at length earlier. We have said we are looking at the completion time. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, answered that in detail earlier as well.

Staged payments, by the way, if we brought them in, would require additional inspections. If you are going to pay €20,000 at the start for €20,000 worth of work, you are going to have another inspection. I do not want four or five inspections through the process that will elongate the process even more. We are looking at doing things like the local authority home loan. We will have that product approved and launched, which will provide bridging for that finance on a very low-cost basis such that if you are approved for the grant, you can wrap it in. I got Cabinet approval for that just a couple of weeks ago, and that mortgage product will be available in July through the local authorities. We just have to be careful about staged payments. I am not saying no to it, but the process is simple now: one inspection at the start, approval, one inspection at the end and you get your money. We are going to see significant drawdowns. I predict about €94 million worth of drawdowns this year. People have been trying to be critical of the scheme, saying there have been only 300 or 400 grants drawn down. No one pays a grant for works that are not done. If that is what Deputy Gould's colleague sitting beside him is suggesting, I would like to know, but the grant is working. People are responding to it.

We need local authorities to do more on vacancy. Senator Cummins earlier mentioned the repair and leasing scheme. There are some magnificent schemes across the country. In Waterford, St. Joseph's House has seen 71 homes delivered, and we could give the committee loads-----