Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)

No, not that there is a budget but that decisions are being made not to fund projects and it is simply a case that we do not have enough money. The Government has said and is saying that money is not the problem and there is no lack of money. We hear this over and over but what the Minister is saying follows up on what we have heard and what we hear from AHBs, which is that there are ongoing delays in the approval of projects, there are projects that should get funding that are not getting funding, or one part of a social housing project is being funded but there is a delay in the CREL part. The AHBs say there are delays and the private sector is also saying there are delays. The Department of public expenditure has written to the Department on this. Clearly there is an issue of a lack of money to invest in social and affordable housing.