Mr. Niall Cussen:

I certainly agree that the issue of bonds and securities in relation to ensuring the satisfactory completion of developments, particularly housing developments, has been problematic. I can supply to the committee in due course information about the progress that is being made in regard to the actual amounts that have been collected as part of bonds and securities in different parts of the country. Local authorities have been quite successful, although it has been a difficult and long drawn-out process in many developments. With that in mind, we pulled together local authority experts, NAMA, banking experts, legal advice and so on and published updated advice on how bonds and securities are to be constructed into the future. In the heady days when the construction and property boom was in full flight with so many planning permissions going through the process and so many bonds being lodged, maybe the eye for detail in terms of how they were drafted and, more properly, how they were implemented in cases where there were difficulties on site may not have got the level of attention it should have. I am confident that, learning from the process, it is not something we will see out into the future. We are looking now at a pace of development, albeit one we would like to increase in the context of the housing issues. Certainly we will be more in tune with keeping a close eye on those details into the future.