John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the city and county managers. I have a few questions. Regarding the previous census, do the witnesses have figures on empty properties? In Kerry the figure is 10,000, which is substantial. The solution in Kerry might be different from what it is in Dublin but I am still interested to know if the witnesses have figures for Dublin.

In terms of the results of the census taken last Sunday night, I have a thought around giving the owners of empty houses an incentive to do them up. A grant scheme could be introduced whereby those houses would be done up and the return would be that the houses would be made available to the city and county managers for rent under a long-term lease or some such arrangement. Is there merit in pursuing such a proposal? There certainly is in rural counties. Would it be beneficial in Dublin? My thought process is that it is much quicker to renovate something that is already built than starting from a greenfield site. I would like the witnesses' views on that, and if it is worth pursuing, it is something we should pursue.

What brings about homelessness? Is it repossession by banks or landlords not renewing tenancies? What is the key driver of homelessness and do we have a red flag system whereby a bank would contact a local authority to indicate that specific mortgages were in arrears and a problem could arise shortly? Do we have an ability in such a case to try to sort it? Allowing a family to become homeless becomes an expensive, cumbersome and difficult process for everybody whereas it would be very beneficial if we could solve the problem before it arises. We may have something in place but, if not, I hope we put something in place.

The following is an obvious question. Is money a problem for the witnesses? If they had more money available to them, could we solve the problem more quickly? There are anomalies with the local property tax, for example, whereby some local authorities have given a cut to the tax which has been of no great value to the householder because it does not amount to more than two or three euro a week per household, whereas in Kerry we have kept it at the set rate and we have an extra €2 million to invest. I believe in Dublin it would be as much as €15 million. Would that money go a long way to solving many of the problems?

I have looked at the tenant purchase scheme and I am struggling with it. It seems that the people who can afford to buy the house simply do not qualify and the people who cannot afford it qualify.

It is a nonsensical proposal. Is there is a need for a tenant purchase scheme? Is it wanted? Is it a model we should move away from? The majority of voids on any local authority housing estate are those that have been purchased, where the parents have passed on and the children have moved away, meaning the house is lying there doing nothing. I wonder, in the context of long-term housing benefit, whether we should continue with such a scheme. Respond and the other housing associations do not have a purchase policy and they retain houses for continued use, which might need to be considered.