Ms Bairbre Nic Aongusa:

We are pulling together the skills.

Deputy Brophy talked about anecdotal evidence of very long delays. We have outlined how we want to improve things and we are in the process of doing so. I think we got some acknowledgement from the local authorities that projects have been progressing. If there is any project about which he has concerns, I would be happy to take details from him at any stage and we can follow it up.

I will ask my colleague, Mr. Philip Nugent, to comment about the AHBs and their capacity or otherwise to contribute to developing and delivering on the social housing strategy. I think they have capacity and the capacity can be built, but I would be the first to acknowledge that they do not represent the entire solution. The reality is that there is no magic bullet here; we need to go for a range of different proposals and solutions.

Deputy Coppinger mentioned that local authorities are frequently blamed for lack of progress. I wish to put on the record that we are not blaming local authorities for lack of progress and I did not blame anybody.