Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply and acknowledge, again, the commitment we have given to work with the Government on this to ensure we get the right result. I welcome the establishment of the expert group and look forward to the announcement the Minister will make following the receipt of correspondence from the national Traveller accommodation consultative committee. I welcome also the consultation that will form part of the work of the expert group. The membership of the group is crucial in terms of expertise, independence and adequate buy-in from the Traveller community and its advocacy organisations. I know the Minister of State accepts that. I would like to see the Oireachtas housing committee involved in some formal way. We will discuss that at the committee and come back to the expert group and the Minister of State with some recommendations early in the new year.

It is very important that all of this work is done within 12 months. If the group is established before the end of the year and really starts to work next year, not only its report and recommendations but any potential legislative changes should be got through by the end of next year in order that everything is in place as the framework through which the new batch of city and county councillors elected in 2019 will be working. That does not mean we do not have to look very hard at planning permission and the issue of Part 8 provision, in particular for those local authorities which have a long history of failing to adhere to their own obligations. We need to look at greater involvement in decision-making by the Traveller community because they sometimes feel consultation is more of a box-ticking exercise than a real form of decision-making. We must also look at the overall level of funding and move back towards the 2008 level of €40 million.

I welcome the Minister of State's comments on the 2017 spend. I suspect, however, that there will still be local authorities which have not spent any or very little of their allocations while others will have taken up the shortfall. We must get into the business of naming and shaming those local authorities publicly, which is why I have requested the information. Those who are doing a good job should be commended but those who repeatedly fail should be named and shamed so that the public knows who is responsible.

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