The number of people on the waiting list is an indication of the extent of the housing problem. Great improvements have been made in terms of local authority housing schemes in recent years, although not as many as we would like. As soon as there is an improvement in terms of buildings, the housing list begins to swell for obvious reasons. Comparative numbers on the waiting list in the western division of Cork County Council between November this year and March last year show a huge increase in the number of people deemed appropriate applicants. The current figure is 1,116, whereas in March 2002 the figure was 594. That is due to a number of obvious reasons, but a doubling of the number of people on the housing list in that division is a frightening statistic. A breakdown of categories of applicants is given, be they single parents with one child or single parents with two children. As always, there is a high number of single males on housing lists. That is a trend I followed for some time when I was a member of the council. In terms of deciding who is fit for an allocation, the decision always militates against elderly single men in particular, which is unfortunate. When I was elected to the council there were a number of people who wanted public representatives, particularly councillors, to make representations on their behalf regarding the housing list. In all honesty, if they were single elderly men, one could not eyeball them and tell them they would get priority because they would not.