Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There seems to have been hundreds of millions of euro spent on rent allowance at a time when the Government could refurbish some of the houses with some of the money involved. Local authorities apparently have no money to refurbish their houses. The Government could also buy houses, but there is a problem with that, and the Minister knows it. If the Government were to provide these people with houses in the morning and they were to move out of the houses they are in, the people who own those houses in the buy-to-let sector would lose out.

They would be in serious financial problems and we would take the hit through the banking system. The problem is that the blanket is not big enough to go around, rather than a solution cannot be found.

It is great to hear there is significant money available to deal with ghost estates, because going by what the local authority in my county, there is not much money to do anything about them. Last week, I visited a house on one of these estates and the people living in it now have to pay the property tax. The situation is a living hell for them and the local authority can do nothing for them because there is no money available. If I thought I would get away with it, I would go into the estate with a bulldozer and floor the 70 houses that are no longer of use there. There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel for these people. Their house is like an oasis in the middle of the estate, beautifully painted and landscaped. It is immaculate, but the message being sent out to them and people like them is: "Don't bloody well try in this country, because if you do, you will get kicked in the head." That is what I see when I go there. We need more money to deal with this situation, because people who are trying are being punished. That should never happen, whether one is a socialist, a capitalist or an environmentalist.