James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

There could be all sorts of reasons for turning down a project. We have to examine the value for money of any project. For any project, the Department has to look at governance issues, the viability of the project and, if there are developers involved, the capacity of those developers to deliver. There could be all sorts of reasons as to why a project may be delayed. The reality is the Department of housing does not have a bottomless pit of money. We have to live within what funding is there. We will always push the envelope as much as possible.

It may also be the case that, if we have a number of different projects, some of them may be the wrong mix for an area, the wrong size or the wrong specification. There might be two projects for funding in a similar area and one might be a far better quality application than the other, has all of the documentation in place or whatever the case might be. We work with AHBs and local authorities to ensure their applications are of good quality. At the end of the day, a Government has to live within its budget and so does the Department. We have certain areas, such as homelessness, that simply have to be demand led. We have to provide the services. When it comes to capital expenditure, though, we do have a budget.