Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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I am disappointed by the amount of funding that ONE has received from some of the local authorities and, as a Donegal man, I shall make representations to Donegal County Council. The organisation has acknowledged that the councils provided funding for capital building projects and to get the houses under way. Why have the councils not built in a reasonable allocation in their housing budgets?

In terms of the homeless, ONE has intervened which has meant that the number of people homeless has been reduced. Does ONE track the number of homeless persons who are ex-service personnel? Does ONE work with other homelessness organisations on the issue? From what I can see, ONE has not received any Government funding. I must say that I was unaware of the Fuchsia Appeal. I like the idea of choosing the fuchsia because it is known in the west of Ireland as God's tears. The appeal could grow in the imagination of the Irish people. The Houses of the Oireachtas can do more to promote the scheme and perhaps we could launch the appeal here. The Chairman, Deputy Stanton, is a huge advocate of the Defence Forces. All of the time that he has been Chairman of this committee, he has championed the issues of the Defence Forces. I am sure my suggestion is something that we will want to do in the new term. I would like to hear the ideas and thoughts of ONE on all of what I have mentioned. The Fuchsia Appeal has immense potential to raise funds for various organisations, if that could be agreed.