Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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I welcome the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and his officials. I thank them for the briefing material provided, which has been circulated among committee members. The meeting has been convened to consider the Supplementary Estimates for Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which were referred by the Dáil to this committee. While the committee has no role in approving the Estimates, there is an opportunity for the committee to make the process more transparent and to engage in a meaningful way on the relevant performance issues.

I propose to proceed by asking the Minister to give a high-level overview of the Department's performance related to expenditure in each programme area. He should keep this to about five minutes. If, having discussed the programme areas detailed in the briefing paper, Members wish to pose questions related to any issue not covered, they may of course do so. I invite the Minister to make his opening statement.