Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will respond now to the questions posed at this point. I will try to do so quickly, otherwise we will not get past this pillar. I take on board some of the Deputy's points in regard to the rental market. There is a great deal of stakeholder consultation needed to get the balance right in terms of any changes to be made to the rental market. What we do not want to do is make changes that result in no new build for rental property. We do not want to make changes that will frighten off investment. At the same time, we need to address some of the issues the Deputy raised. This plan does not go into detail in that regard but it proposes changes that I believe that are no-brainers. For example, if a property fund sells a complex to another property fund and there are more than 20 units in that development, all the tenancies should continue through that sale. The issue becomes more complex to deal with in a situation where the vast majority of rental properties are owned by landlords of one or two properties. In that regard much more difficult issues arise, such as property rights and so on. The solution is not as simple as a Minister putting in place a regulation that puts a moratorium on all evictions. There are knock-on consequences to decisions such that if they are not thought through properly they can make the overall situation worse.

On the question regarding pregnant women, that is a 2017 commitment under the plan. We intend to have a facilities that provide for ten to 12 women. The locations for these facilities are currently being identified. Services and supports will be provided by the HSE and Tusla. We are trying to do as many actions in parallel as we can. It is hoped we can move this action on early next year. On family supports, I take on board the Deputy's comments in that regard. There are a number of families dispersed across multiple hotel sites across the city. We try to locate people close to where their original communities in terms of accessing schools, services and so on. I take the Deputy's point in relation to transport and that the solution is not as simple as giving someone a bus ticket. I will discuss that issue with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, who has pretty strong views on it, most of which I am sure the Deputy would agree with.

On vacant houses, we are planning to do a lot around vacant properties. We have committed €70 million to the Housing Agency. It is already negotiating with banks in relation to the acquisition from them of properties that are currently vacant and linked to broken loan books, which the agency can then subsequently lease. The agency will seek to maximise the impact, in terms of unit numbers, of that €70 million. The view is that it should be able to access approximately 1,600 new units with that level of funding. The agency will also have fund-raising capacity from the lease of properties. We are also introducing a repair-to-lease programme, which will be piloted in Carlow and Waterford. Under this programme a local authority can approach a private landlord and offer him or her three or five years' rent upfront to ensure he or she can upgrade a property to make it suitable for rent. In other words, rather just giving a grant to people with no guarantee of access to property for rent, we are linking the two. There are lots of examples of people who on the passing of their parents have inherited a family home which is no longer being lived in but they do not want to sell it. They are the type of people we want to approach. We will offer them up to €15,000 to upgrade the property in return for which we will takeover management of the tenancy on their behalf and ensure a property is maintained properly. We are not only proposing to allow local authorities to do this, we are also trying to design a scheme to allow approved housing bodies to also do that, initially on a pilot basis so that we can determine that it works.