In regard to the new housing strategy, I am disappointed with the Taoiseach for blaming the local authorities and saying they lost their way in terms of house building. That is incorrect. The former Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government also blamed the local authorities in that regard, but the local authorities were not given the money to build houses.

The Deputy must ask a question.

He is getting to the question.

The Taoiseach has again said that money is being provided. Are the blockages in the Department that prevented local authorities from accessing funding going to be removed?

Good point.

In 2013, the Government promised €1.2 million for Kerry County Council but the council could not access that funding. It also promised the council €62.5 million in 2015, which again it could not access-----

The Deputy will not get an answer if he does not give way.

-----because of blockages in the Department. The Taoiseach is now unfairly blaming the local authorities, which I regret very much.

As I said, local authorities used to build sizeable numbers of isolated houses in town schemes for many years. They lost that capacity for whatever reason.

The Government did not give them the money.

There is more money being made available now for local authorities. We met with the county managers and chief executives and they have been given their timelines, objectives, numbers and the money. They are getting incentives to access sites that are currently unavailable to them-----

They are out of practice.

-----to ensure they get back to what they did very well for many years, which is providing houses for people. I hope that they take up this challenge in a real way, including Kerry County Council.

Remove the blockages.