Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Following on from the Declan Rice conversation, we should not forget that the League of Ireland season starts tomorrow night and I encourage everyone interested in Irish soccer to get out and support their local club. I also wish Harry Kenny and all at St. Patrick's Athletic in Inchicore the best in their quest for Europe and a push for the title this year.

The 44% underspend on Traveller accommodation in 2018 is unacceptable. It follows an underspend in 2017 when only €4.8 million of the allocation of €8.7 million was spent. It is not good enough. The 2018 budget was €12 million. Sinn Féin welcomes the establishment of the working group that is reviewing Traveller accommodation programmes but the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government has to explain why for the second year there has been an underspend on his watch.He should engage with local authorities who are failing to invest in Traveller accommodation and the State should intervene wherever these authorities refuse to adequately fund Traveller accommodation. I do not need to say it, but the failure to deliver good and quality accommodation is how we end up with tragedies like Carrickmines. We should hear from the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, as to why there is a consistent and repeated underspend on Traveller accommodation.