Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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I welcome everybody. Today, we are meeting representatives of the Land Development Agency. Before we proceed with our meeting, members have expressed a wish to discuss the invitation extended to the Peter McVerry Trust, Department officials and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive. Members will remember that we issued an invitation to the three organisations quite some time ago because the committee wanted to explore some of the work the McVerry Trust had done, discuss the funding allocation that had been given to the trust after the recent difficulties, and discuss the impact of the current issues on their current clients and service users. Unfortunately, the McVerry Trust wrote back to the committee to decline the invitation and cited that they felt it would be inappropriate to attend pending the outcome of two ongoing investigations, one by the Charities Regulator and one by the approved housing bodies regulator. We wrote back to the McVerry Trust saying we understood its position but also to re-issue our invitation and that the committee members did wish to proceed with the meeting notwithstanding its concerns. I think this committee always conducts itself in a very reasonable way, and all the members always conduct themselves reasonably and know what is and is not okay to ask about, so I do not see any concern there at all. We also received responses from the Department and the DRHE, both outlining in very similar language to that of the McVerry Trust that they felt it was inappropriate to attend at this time.

We have subsequently written back to the three organisations outlining the purpose of the meeting and that we are still insistent on the meeting going ahead. We reminded them of the powers that exist under Standing Orders for this committee to compel witnesses to appear. It is not a straightforward procedure but it is one we are willing to invoke, if necessary. We sent the invitation again to the three organisations. We got a response from the Department today, which I have not fully read and therefore will not quote. I think members are in agreement that the meeting should proceed and I would like to hear their comments on that. First is Senator Cummins, then Deputy Higgins and then Deputy Ó Broin.