Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I want to start in the same way that I started with the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and that is by expressing my extreme frustration. I think the Minister of State misunderstood me because my frustration predates his taking up of his role. We have been discussing these things since 2017, since the Housing Agency report which highlighted the enormous failures both of central government and local government to implement their own Traveller accommodation programmes. We have had an expert group with 32 recommendations on the table for two and a half years. Many of us in this committee struggled with those recommendations. In fact, I think that for all of us, from all parties, particularly when it came to the proposed changes to planning law and land transfers - Part 8 and section 183 - our gut was not to support those because we have seen far too many powers taken away from local authorities. However, all of us, unanimously, at the end of a detailed consideration of that report in the previous Oireachtas realised that, in the absence of any other proposal, those recommendations had to be implemented as a matter of urgency or things were going to get worse. I have been trying to get the Minister of State, both through parliamentary questions and also today, to give me a straight answer as to why those measures are not in the legislative programme.

It is very disappointing that Eugene is restating the County and City Management Association's position, which is really reluctance to embrace those changes. If he has a better alternative, that is great and he can present it to us, but I do not think he has. Until we tackle those issues, then both the quality of the accommodation and the volume of accommodation issues are not going to get addressed.

I also think the list of issues that Eugene said-----