Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I take it the Minister has said that the next tranche will be announced when the €200 million has been expended, effectively. The Minister is telling me that he will wait for another €60 million to be drawn down before we get an answer and we know the size of the next tranche of funding. I understand that. The Minister has said here repeatedly that all loans will be honoured. The experience of many people in many different local authorities is the opposite of what the Minister has stated. Kildare County Council has been returning applications indicating it cannot go to the final stage of the loan, the drawdown, because it does not have its allocation for this year. It is as simple as that. While the Minister says €60 million is left, how many local authorities have expended their allocations?

I allow the Minister the latitude to outline this even in the broadest possible timeline he could give. Are we expecting these ongoing discussions between his Department and the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform to continue for another six, 12 or 18 months? Will we get some clarity on this at long last or do we have to submit further freedom of information requests to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to get to the truth of the matter?

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