Mr. Patrick O'Sullivan:

There were about a dozen questions there, so please bear with me as I try to address them as much as possible. As regards the responsibility of my business unit, I have broad responsibility for housing policy for older people. I also have responsibility for housing policy for disabled people. I also have responsibility for the private housing grants. That is largely together with Traveller accommodation as well. Those are the four broad areas I have responsibility for in the social inclusion unit.

It is important to recognise that, unlike the position with standard social housing, the delivery of Traveller-specific accommodation can be challenging in light of the need to provide halting sites, halting bays and group housing. Therefore, the timing can be extended somewhat more than is the case when it comes to standard housing, depending on the degree of opposition at local level and the complexity of the design involved. In our experience, it takes longer, unfortunately. I do not think there is any way around that.

Importantly, when it comes to the Traveller accommodation programmes, there is a statutory process where a mid-term review has to be undertaken. We undertook that review two years in. We reported to our National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, which, as I mentioned, is independently chaired by Mr. Neil Crowley and which was previously chaired by Professor Eoin O'Sullivan of Trinity College Dublin. When we report to that committee, representatives from the Traveller advocacy groups, the County and City Management Association, CCMA, the Association of Irish and Local Government, AILG, and elected members are sitting around the table. There is very active monitoring because we meet regularly with the consultative committee. The heat is put to our feet, shall we say, on a regular basis in that regard. This year, the funding available is €7 million.

On applications refused, I would say that they were not refused but that we may have to go back for clarification or to look for further detail at times. That is without question. I have no experience, in my time, of any application being refused. There is a broader pipeline. Given that Traveller accommodation is a five-year programme, local authorities have a pipeline to manage delivery. We have a lot of projects that are being moved forward at individual local authority level. We have to manage that. It is challenging to manage it from the point of view of an annual budget. Ultimately, the budget is multi-annual. We have been able to meet all the demands over the past number of years. We relied on a Supplementary Estimate of about €4 million a year or two years ago. However, we have been able to meet the demand. We have not been turning local authorities away in the context of paying for the delivery of Traveller accommodation.

In the context of ensuring resourcing for the future, the NDP review is ongoing. We have fed our demand figures into that process, and we await the outcome.