Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We spoke about land banks. There is a huge amount of land at Dunsink Lane in Castleknock. Much of it was compulsorily purchased over the last while by Fingal County Council but there are no plans in place for building on that site. Recently I was at a meeting with the managers of Fingal County Council which was attended by some Deputies, and it was made clear that it has not been looked at. We are in a crisis and there is a massive amount of council-owned land there. I do not understand why it has not even got onto the table. I feel somewhat tetchy about it.

Dublin City County used to make contributions to senior citizens complexes. It stopped those contributions and has not been making them for a long time. We have a large number of bedsits in different areas, such as Finglas, Ballymun and Whitehall which are empty and we were supposed to convert two into one. Now we are returning to the old idea of bedsits. These are small things that can contribute to helping solve the housing crisis. We need to ask why those bedsits have been left there. There are many idle units, not just a couple.

We also need to look at adaptions for overcrowding. While we stopped these years ago and never went back, families were huge. That could take a number of people off the housing list. It would also stop many people from becoming homeless. It is a small thing. The local authorities tell us that it is down to funding. If it is down to funding, surely we should be able to find more money. We are finding money for dealing with extensions or otherwise, but the overcrowding issue is not being looked at and I believe that it is worth considering.

The embargo on recruitment in the local authorities has led to a build up of voids across the city. It has recently been lifted, but not in the maintenance section. Most of the people in the maintenance section of Dublin City Council are now aged over 50. There are no apprenticeships, which is absolutely mad. Dublin City Council uses private contractors. In the past we were able to turn over the voids very quickly. There is a loss of staff there, whether carpenters, metalworkers or electricians, and there is scarcely a person under 50. I would love it if the Minister would raise that issue, because having more apprenticeships could improve the situation.

We have a public private partnership, PPP, supposedly, in Scribblestown, but we seem to be struggling to get it going for some reason in terms of tying up the finance. Can the Minister explain why we are struggling to get these PPPs?