Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the Minister of State. I wish him well in what is a very challenging job indeed. In his statement, he referred to Housing for All. It is interesting that the Irish Traveller Movement raised this as one of its priority issues in a submission to us. It states:

... Housing for All plan commits to prioritising the implementation of the Expert Review recommendations, however there are no enumerated targets included for Traveller accommodation in the plan and there are no timelines attached for the implementation of the 32 recommendations.

These are not disconnected issues; they are linked. It is important to provide targets, timelines and sufficient resourcing for each local authority to ensure what is promised is delivered on and the people who are responsible are ultimately held accountable for specific Traveller accommodation. We must ensure these successes and targets are measurable. That is the big challenge and task. The Irish Traveller Movement has asked the committee to ensure these targets, timelines and sufficient resources are in place and clearly outlined so we can see how this implementation advisory group's review recommendations are implemented. That will be important.

My only ask today is that the Minister of State establish a national Traveller accommodation authority to independently monitor and oversee the planning and delivery of the Traveller-specific accommodation. I ask that he commit to establish a national Traveller monitoring group that would oversee the delivery of Traveller accommodation. Local authorities have run into difficulties and have simply not delivered. We must move on.

I will address two other issues the Minister of State also raised. The Office of the Planning Regulator produced a case study paper, CSP03, entitled Traveller Accommodation and the Local Authority Development Plan.

The Minister of State mentioned it a moment ago. It is an excellent document - an excellent piece of work and really important. I refer to the pilot caravan loan scheme. I was a councillor 20-odd years ago and we were talking about pilot caravan loan schemes then. There have been a number of such pilot schemes. What have we learned from them all? I am somewhat surprised that the CCMA, through four local authorities, is carrying out another pilot. I do not know whether it has looked at the past and learnt from the mistakes that were made such that we can move forward. I am somewhat shocked and surprised that this is now being piloted all over again. There is nothing new in that. If that is the best that people here can do, it is very disappointing.

One cannot but be alarmed by what the Ombudsman for Children talks about and his serious concerns. Children are at risk. I use the word "risk" in a very broad sense. The conditions are squalor, rat infestation, no sewerage and no running fresh water on certain sites where we have our children. This is in a country that talks about cherishing the children of the nation equally. That is not happening. The Minister of State and I know the problems. This is nothing personal. I believe he is up to this and committed to doing something about it. I thank him again for coming before the committee. My final ask is the establishment of a national Traveller accommodation authority to monitor and oversee independently the planning and delivery of Traveller-specific accommodation. That is what the Traveller community is looking for and we should be able to deliver on it.