Mr. Frank D'Arcy:

I refer back to something Deputy Connolly said regarding oversight. One of the strengths of the local Traveller accommodation consultative committee, LTACC, is that it is dynamic. There are six representatives from the Traveller community and six councillors. They have great oversight in relation to maintenance issues, financial expenditure and capital projects, which I will come to in a moment. I understand Deputy Ellis's frustration about where DCC is in that regard with the new focus we have. The Deputy referred to welfare matters and social workers. Our chief social worker sits on the LTACC, which has very good oversight regarding issues relating to estate management and the Traveller council.

On maintenance, the Deputy will know the structure within DCC. I have other responsibilities in respect of maintenance and so forth. How the maintenance works in DCC is that there are eight area maintenance officers for the different areas and for the 26,500 units for which we have rent accounts. We recently appointed an area maintenance officer specifically to the Traveller accommodation unit. That will be a good step forward when it comes to engagement with tenants at the various sites the Deputy mentioned. Furthermore, it is our intention to do surveys of the various sites that we have regarding footpaths, lighting and bay,s and what needs to be done with those. Deputy Ellis mentioned the loan schemes and the emergency scheme. It has been a great success, delivering 90 units in five years.

In respect of the delivery of new builds in Dublin city, the Deputy will be pleased to know that Cara Park got nine new units. Part 8 planning was approved by the council in June. We are putting together our stage 3 funding application to submit to the Department. We hope to have that done by the end of July. I will be able to sit before this committee and say that we have new builds.

In relation to Avila Park, we are making good progress in the context of building there. In terms of the Labre Park regeneration, which is close to the heart of Senator Flynn, she will know that we have built a new playground. That has been a great success.

We now monitor waste collection and maintenance. We received 221 maintenance requests through the Traveller accommodation unit for the first five months of 2025. Of those, 157 have been completed successfully and 64 are in hand. My colleague mentioned earlier on that we have a framework in place. There are three substantial subcontractors on that, and they are also doing void units. We are starting to see the benefits of that.