Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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The Minister anticipates 64% of the Department’s overall allocation for 2015 to have been spent to date. What will not be spent and under what headings before the end of the year?

The area of housing accounts for 51% of the overall allocation for the Department. It is pretty difficult to scrutinise this when one is only counting one part of the equation and when the other side is covered by a different committee. That concerns the amount of moneys allocated through rent supplement and increased rent supplement. We have a housing crisis that was predictable. In fact, this committee debated it and more or less drew attention to it several years ago. The scale of the crisis is out of proportion to the amounts available in the budget. Does the Minister have an estimate of what is necessary to deal with scale of the housing crisis?

Does he believe the response is in proportion to that? Much of the money is being allocated on the current side rather than on the capital side on matters such as housing assistance payments. Essentially, they represent a residual payment as opposed to a permanent response. The local authorities are allocating €112 million directly. From what budget is that coming? Is that on the capital or current side?

On local government funding, the general-purpose grant is being dispensed with. That, of course, was the mechanism for funding local authorities in advance of the introduction of the local property tax. Essentially, the property tax is a replacement tax rather than an additional tax. Some 80% is retained by the local authorities and 14 local authorities reduced their local property tax. Some counties are net contributors and others are net recipients. If a net recipient is capable of reducing its local property tax, is that factored into the equation for the following year?

The Minister said the lower property tax base is the reason for determining the 20%. Is there any evaluation of the level of services local authorities are capable of providing? For example, the needs and resources model used to be the model for determining if there was buoyancy in the general-purpose fund. There are huge differences in the ratios for staff in different parts of the country. It is pretty difficult to catch up, particularly in growing areas, without factoring that in. Will the Minister address that issue?

The Minister said that the €399 million provided from the local government fund to Irish Water in 2015 relates specifically to the free water for children along with the capping of domestic charges. Will the Minister give us the breakdown of costs, specifically regarding the provisions for children? Further to the €100 grant for conservation, has the Department completed any analysis or measurement of conservation or is there any intention to have such a measurement? Should it be called conservation if it is not possible to measure it?

Money was provided on the capital side for housing outputs. How many houses have been built and will be built by the end of the year from that budget? What kind of lead-in time will be needed to deliver? What proportion of houses might be delivered? Have the various local authorities carried out any analysis in that regard? It is important to be able to deliver on the money that is allocated.

What is being done in that context?