Chamber and committees

That could mean that there is a little bit of leeway for SNIB and housing next year.

Thank you. My final point is about paragraph 101, which covers the Scotland reserve. The idea is that

“over time the Scotland Reserve could become more of a genuine reserve of funds.”

That would allow us to save a bit. However, at the moment, as the Government has pointed out, there is just not the leeway to do that. Do you anticipate that we might be able to put money aside at a future point, or do you think that the pressure to always spend as much as we can is too great?

Some people would say that it is better to have two people in one room than one person in a room and one person on the street.

Does that affect both the resettlement scheme and the asylum-seeking scheme?

I think that you have made my point. I just wanted to know whether there are problems with all the programmes, and there are.

Have you seen that having a negative impact on people’s health?

So, however people come, there are problems with the system.

My first question is for Mr O’Neill. The Scottish Refugee Council talked about the maximisation policy, as it is called, whereby adults who are not related or who do not know each other have to share rooms. Is that a bad thing? If so, why, and what is the impact on people?

Would that be just two people, or could more people share one room?

Do you think that the room sharing was part of the reason for that?