Ms Patricia King:

With regard to the Deputy's point, there is some form of systematic dysfunctionality. I will not delve into it too deeply here because there are bigger and better people who know what the dysfunctionality is. In part of our campaign on our charter, which many members of the committee are familiar with and met us about, I visited quite a number of local authorities. When one rounded up the discussions there, their ills were all blamed on the Department. I had several discussions with officials from the Department. When that was all rounded up, where did that go? I am saying this in simple, plain terms. It is not easy to resolve. The committee is, in my opinion, homing in on a very strong point of issue that needs to be dealt with by the establishment. There is an extended labour-employer economic forum which will start in July and one module will be housing, at which the trade unions will take the opportunity, working directly with officials and the Minister involved, to see if we can unlock some of this and at least have people identify what the obstacles are. If one identifies what the problem is, one has a far greater chance with it. Both are heavily unionised with regard to employees working. Maybe we can unlock some of the pieces there.

It is true that there is an issue that must be dealt with, apart from money and capital investment. The system has to be unlocked to allow it to happen.