John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for attending. Previously, I raised the issue of the different dynamic at play in different parts of the country. There is a supply issue in Dublin whereas in Kerry, where I am from, there is a significant number of empty properties. Reference was made to the Living City initiative. I believe one in three properties is vacant in most towns and villages in rural Ireland because parents have passed on and family members are living elsewhere.

These properties are lying vacant and there is no incentive to do anything with them. I made a proposal that it might be appropriate to make available a grant to the homeowner to do up a property to an acceptable standard and that the payback or condition of payment of the grant would be that the house would be made available to the local authority on a long-term lease. Again, I believe something like that would have a significant take-up because the benefits are self-explanatory. I do not know if the Minister's proposal is on these lines, but if not, he has said he will work to improve it. If a homeowner is incentivised to do up a property, with a guaranteed income at the end of it through a local authority rental, it would be a real win-win. I would like this proposal to be considered.

I have had significant interaction with the members of the Irish League of Credit Unions who believe credit unions have a strong and active role to play, if they are allowed to play it, but they make the point to me that they are more or less hamstrung in their lending abilities. They would like to play a role, particularly for the single homeowner, but they believe they are unable to do so. They have made proposals which I am sure the Minister has seen and I would like to know what his thoughts are. Can we have the credit unions come to the committee in order that they can play an active role to add benefit and help to resolve some part of the crisis?

The publication of the census results will provide us with very important information which we will need to take on board very quickly, in particular, on empty properties. We need to know whether it is actual or just anecdotal.

In his last paragraph the Minister expressed concern about "proposed demand-side interventions." He might explain this for my benefit as I do not understand to what it refers.