Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ó Cuív. I acknowledge his passion and his commitment in the context of resolving issues for the Traveller community and accommodation-specific challenges. It is a complex issue and we are all aware of this. The good work of the committee is certainly shining a spotlight on how we need to move forward on this. We have made significant progress in this regard. We have seen capital spend increase year on year. If we look at the budget for Traveller-specific accommodation, refurbishment and the provision of halting sites and group housing schemes, we see it has been fully drawn down over the past four years. More than €80 million has been expended. The improvement on this drawdown is a significant step forward.

With regard to the question on demand and our focus on delivering local authority-led projects, the output in 2023 was eight new halting site units, 27 new group housing units, major refurbishment of 16 halting sites and major refurbishment of 15 group homes. These refurbishments, as Deputy Ó Cuív has said, will continue to support need. Accommodation is planned by local authorities through the Traveller-specific accommodation programme and we have seen significant progress in the most recent programme.

Local authorities are developing future Traveller accommodation programmes for the next five years. It is very important that local authorities carry out an assessment to determine local need, ensure they have annual targets and measure implementation at local level. It is very important that local Traveller accommodation consultative committees are established and that they have teeth in each local authority area to commit to deliver and implement the required Traveller-specific accommodation. Our policy statement on this is to ensure we adequately fund local authorities in this regard.

The Deputy asked about the pilot caravan loan scheme and I know he has been a big advocate of it. This is for people to purchase their own caravans or mobile homes for use as a primary residence. The pilot programme has been very successful in supporting the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation. As stated earlier, 169 loans were provided and these have supported more than 626 people in Traveller communities. More than €6 million has been drawn down to support the Traveller loan scheme. We are evaluating the report.

The Deputy also asked about waivers. I understand approximately 24 applicants benefited from a waiver from the €500 deposit in the 2023-24 caravan loan scheme. This demonstrates the discretion local authorities have in applying the necessary needs analysis for those applying for it. It is a pilot scheme and its provision is limited by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. We feel the allocation model is fair. We will see what happens with the report. I am sure there will be lessons and issues raised that will feed into the next steps forward. The loan amount of €40,000 has increased substantially from the initial implementation, which was €6,000. The standard of mobile homes and trailers has increased, as have costs. New standards were introduced in 2023 in this regard. We will give this consideration as part of the evaluation process.

I know committee members are concerned about the amount. It has been raised as challenge. I expect the amount cap will form part of the evaluation. It is very important to say that. Everything is up for consideration in the context of the caravan loan scheme. The previous 5% deposit was a challenge and a barrier. With the support of the national Traveller accommodation consultative committee, we implemented a €500 deposit and moved away from the 5% deposit. The 5% deposit was excessive. In some cases, it meant a deposit of €2,000. Now the deposit is €500. We have given discretion to local authorities to waive the €500 deposit in some instances. I look forward to seeing the report because it is very important that the scheme can move into 2025 and that we put in place all of the findings from the pilot scheme in order to ensure that we can provide more access to the scheme to the Traveller community.