Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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It is welcome to see additional money being spent in this area, given the commitment of everybody in the room to the issue. I have a number of questions. The Minister can choose to answer those that he wishes. The first relates to housing projections. The Estimates relate to spending this year. Obviously there is a budget provision for next year. We intend to publish new housing projections. It would be interesting to hear where we are on that and how funding will match those projections.

While not part of the Estimates, it would be interesting to find out more about the further capital available to the Land Development Agency in the budget for next year. I cannot remember whether it was a recommendation of this committee or the Committee of Public Accounts but, regarding the idea of funding for local authorities and the clarity of funding for local authorities, it can be difficult for local authorities to distil how much money is coming from central government and how much is not, given the complex mechanism of funding. I think the recommendation from one of our committees was that a project would be undertaken to simplify or increase the transparency of that. I would ask the Minister to think on that.

I might come back to the final matter if we have time. I had the opportunity to meet the St. John of God Housing Association, which provides housing for people with disabilities. It is struggling to access the CALF scheme, which would provide it with some financing for maintenance, whereas it is obliged to apply under the capital assistance scheme, CAS. There are issues regarding lettings under the scheme and so on. If the Minister is not able to give us a full answer here, I wonder if he might be in a position to meet the association. It wants to provide more housing but it wants to do so in a sustainable way. If it was able to access the CALF funding, it feels it would be in a better position to meet the challenge that has been put to it and all our approved housing bodies.