I thank the Leader for his good wishes. I wish all my colleagues a happy new year and look forward to a very productive session in 2014.

Two committees are questioning Irish Water in detail. It is appropriate that be done in the committees. A question that needs to be answered in respect of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, is that he said he did not micromanage any aspect of his Department. I do not think €180 million is a small amount of money. An example of what he and the Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, have done is that they have literally thrown Mr. John Tierney and senior officials in Irish Water under the bus. The Minister, who will be in the House this afternoon, has many questions to answer. We debated the Water Services (No. 2) Bill in great detail here, for which I commend the Leader. That is one thing the other House did not do. These are very serious issues. People are extremely annoyed about what they are hearing. The lack of governance within the Departments appears to be at the crux of the issue. Irish Water passed all details to the Minister and his Department. As they were signed off on and approved, let us not fool anybody about who is responsible. The Minister is responsible. At the appropriate time, when the Committee of Public Accounts and the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht have finished their deliberations we should have a debate on the specific issues around cost and the roll-out of metering.

I ask the Leader to request the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, to come to the House at the earliest possible opportunity. I had more regard for the Minister of State and her Department than I do now. On 31 December they issued a circular to all local authorities stating the housing adaptation grants, housing aid for older people and mobility aids grants were being cut.

Not true.

Let me outline some facts and we will cut through all the Government spin and bull that we have been listening to in recent weeks. These cuts were not announced in the budget or by the Minister of State. She should have come into the Dáil and the Seanad and set out her reasoning for this, but she did not. The circular was sent to local authorities on New Year's Eve. If that is not trying to sneak something in under the radar I do not know what is.

Does the Senator have a question for the Leader?

I want the Leader to give a commitment that the Minister of State will come to the House at the earliest possible opportunity to answer questions on the issue because the Government press office and the spin doctors within Government have managed to say the mobility grant is being increased next year.

That is a laugh. One should take a look at the figures. When the Government took over in 2011, €80 million was being spent on housing adaptation grants for the elderly and the disabled.

Does the Senator have a question for the Leader? He is eating into other Senators' time.

I am trying to inform some of the Members and will conclude on this. Some €80 million was being spent in 2011. The Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, said on radio that the grant was actually being increased and that the criteria were not really being changed but being made more focused. That is absolute rubbish. The Government has halved the amount of money allocated to local authorities, whether Members opposite like it. I have all of the figures for each county to hand. The Government has also made it far more difficult for people to avail of the grant and this has increased the amount the elderly and the disabled must pay towards the adaptation of their housing. Perhaps the Leader might state why the Minister of State did not appear before the Dáil or the Seanad to announce these measures. Why was it left until New Year's Eve for a faceless official in her Department to send a circular to every local authority in the country to state the scheme had been changed drastically?

With Senators Maurice Cummins and Darragh O'Brien, I wish all colleagues in the House a happy new year. I hope we will have a productive and fruitful year.

Let me refer to the controversy over Irish Water which has been the subject of considerable public debate. I very much welcome the fact that two Oireachtas committees are examining it and scrutinising the consultancy payments in greater detail. I refer to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht and the Committee of Public Accounts. I hope we can have a debate in this House, perhaps in the coming weeks, once more information is forthcoming through the committee hearings. It is appropriate that the committees conduct hearings and are able to ask the questions before we have a debate on the floor of this House.

With regard to the housing adaptation scheme and the comments made thereon by Senator Darragh O'Brien, I remind him that there is an increase in the allocation for the housing adaptation grant for 2014.

From what did the Government bring it down?

I listened to the Senator. I have the figures for each county also and it is very clear that there has been an increase, of over €4 million. The amount for the budget this year is over €38 million.

What was it in 2010 and 2011?

As the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, has made clear, the purpose of the changes is to ensure maximum value is gained from the funding invested in the programme and that funding is targeted at the most vulnerable. The changes follow from a review conducted by the housing agency. The review is available on the agency's website, housing.ie. There has been a good deal of misinformation and scaremongering about this issue. It is important that those concerned about the matter examine the facts, the results of the housing review that took place and the new criteria. Detailed guidance for local authorities is to be issued in the coming weeks. The guidance will draw attention to the flexibility required at local level regarding the grant and it is said no one will be prevented from receiving grant support owing to an inability to pay. We need to be very clear about the facts and the housing adaptation scheme.

I welcome the news that Dublin City Council voted yesterday to reverse the proposed cuts to the homelessness budget. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate in the House with the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, on these issues. We could focus particularly on homelessness. My colleague, Senator Aideen Hayden, has done a lot of work on this issue and been vocal in calling for a debate on homelessness in the House. I am sure the Minister of State will be happy to debate it. It is important that we have the debate with factual information available to us. I have the facts available to me.

I have them also and refer the Senator to the figures from 2010.

Even the Senator cannot dispute the fact that there has been an increase in the allocation.

I absolutely dispute it. That is a lie, actually.

Senator Ivana Bacik to continue, without interruption.

The figures from 2010 and 2011-----

Please, Senator.

The budget allocated in March 2013 was €34.2 million. The initial budget for this year is €38,410,342.

That is the Senator's press office working in overdrive.

By any calculation by any primary school mathematician, that amounts to an increase.

That is rubbish. The Senator should go back one year.