Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I concur with Senator Cummins. It is disappointing that the meeting is not going ahead. This was an opportunity for the Peter McVerry Trust to put its perspective on the record of the Dáil. I appreciate there are two ongoing investigations and nobody at this committee would want in any way to interfere or prejudice those investigations. At the end of the day, however, this is an Oireachtas committee that has its functions. A lot of what we do is about transparency and it is disappointing that because an organisation, which is State-funded to a substantial degree, is not engaging with an Oireachtas joint committee, we cannot do our jobs. It would be regrettable if we had to oblige or compel its representatives to come before us. I hope we avoid that and instead have meaningful engagement and collaboration because at the end of the day, the vision of the organisation is the same as the vision of the Minister and the committee, which is to tackle the ongoing housing crisis. We can work together on that.