Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To follow on from Senator Cummins, local authorities have come here and said that the €60,000 is not enough for many local authorities to get them to buy in in the way that Waterford has bought in. While the Department is reviewing that, it is certainly something that could make a difference to get local authorities to buy in.

On a point we touched on earlier, there was a story in the Irish Examineryesterday, and I heard a contribution recently, that Cork County Council said it was never informed extra funds were available to local authorities to hire vacant homes officers. The Minister said recently, maybe two weeks ago, that the local authorities needed to get their fingers out but the problem is local authorities did not know there was anywhere to put their fingers because they were never told. One of the problems, which the witnesses referred to earlier, is that local authorities do not have the staff or the expertise in place to deal with all of the different initiatives that are there. We had the County and City Management Association in recently and it reckons the local authorities are short hundreds of staff to deal with the projects that are there. Is there a new line of funding for local authorities to hire vacant homes officers and appoint affordable homes officers for cost rental? What I see in local authorities is that some staff are under unbelievable pressure and are trying to have three or four hats on at a time. If we are going to have all of these schemes, there needs to be funding to deliver them. That is my first question.