Lorraine Higgins (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State and compliment her on her work in the Department since she took over the portfolio. In particular, I commend her for the recent announcement of €3 million in grants for the adaptation of homes for the elderly and those with a disability in County Galway and a further €4 million for the improvement of the existing housing supply in the county. While these figures are extremely laudable and she has had to fight hard to secure this funding given current budgetary constraints, there is one issue that concerns me, that is, the time lag between people being allocated a local authority house and their move-in date. In my experience, in some instances, it can be six months or more before tenants move into the dwellings they have been allocated because essential works may have to be done, the BER ratings must be carried out or other works may have to be put out to tender. This practice is depriving the Exchequer of much needed funds. I respectfully ask whether the Minister of State has any plans to look at this in order that she can achieve further efficiencies within her Department in order that ultimately the funding could be used for other worthwhile projects such as the ones I mentioned.