Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It was concerned about it. Consider the history of housing in recent decades. Twenty-five years ago, the local authority carried out many of the repairs and improvements. That practice died away during the collapse and because people often did not like what the local authority did. I grew up in a rented house and lived there until my 20s. I know what I am talking about when it comes to having no autonomy over one's own house. Deputies who handle many local authority cases and meet many people in local authority areas will be familiar with the fact that, when tenants give up a local authority house, they ask whether they will see the fireplace, floors or windows they installed being thrown into skips courtesy of some council or other. Deputy McGrath is familiar with this issue. Everything is just sitting in a skip. In Cork, it takes two years for a local authority to redo the voided house. In recent years, Dublin local authorities have lowered that to less than one year. People want to put their own stamps on their houses.

I will cite the example of a couple who approached me recently. One member of the couple is working. Their local authority, which is a Dublin one, has not made any housing available for sale to tenants for reasons that we all understand. There are approximately 3,500 current and former local authority houses in my constituency. They are nice, but they are poorly insulated. The original windows are desperate. Normally, the houses are occupied by people who, for example, have been widowed. Even if they can make repairs, perhaps with their children's help, the scheme will not be taken up by everyone, but it will be by a certain group of people who would value investing in their houses to make them more comfortable. The notion that local authorities would vary the rent differential in estates of hundreds of houses can be taken into account, but many of the Deputies present have been council members.

Why would Limerick City and County Council do so? It would just cause an incredible strain. If the Minister so wishes, we can come back to the matter on Report Stage, but there should be some degree of equity to the scheme.

Deputy Doherty made a very important point about bringing people out of the grey economy and registering them for VAT and other tax purposes, which is at the heart of the scheme. Once people register, they generally become legitimate, they and their employees ultimately enter into the PRSI system and we secure their pensions, futures and so on. I accept what Deputy Doherty said about rural areas. Maybe there could even be a variation whereby a local authority has a slight possibility of, say, varying the bands, bringing them down to €3,000 or €4,000. However, if major work is carried out on a house, the local authority would have to agree to it but it would take a big worry off its back that its stock of housing is deteriorating. If the towns are prepared to do it properly and get the VAT back, as other people are getting it back, it is a win-win for everybody. On that basis, I strongly commend the amendment to the Minister.