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

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. Everyone here is singing from the same hymn sheet about what we want to see. There is huge frustration that we are not delivering quickly enough and that there are a series of obstacles, including planning, fire safety etc. That is why we think Deputy Cowen's Bill could help to create a package that will be delivered quickly. It has not been delivered quickly enough over recent years. Now we are in such a crisis that we need to move much more quickly.

We talk about the 4,000 units over shops and the 200,000 or more places vacant across the country, but I have tried repeatedly to get figures on how many shops are boarded up. Since the Celtic tiger period in 2008 there are at least 30 with fronts boarded up in Ballymun. I see them in Bodenstown but there is no figure for them. We should be able to get that and to find out why they are not being dealt with. It would be complicated to convert them, whether into units for living or otherwise. That would require a great deal of work, with architects etc. In small towns and in Dublin there are warehouses that are not accounted for. There are places left vacant all over the city. We need to find out if they can be utilised, whether to help those who are homeless or to get them up and running as living places. Years ago the mill in Phibsborough was converted. I think there is a plan to convert the old mill on Pearse Street into something similar. We need to be more imaginative about how we do it. It is very frustrating.

The working group should have been set up years ago and now it has met only twice which is not very often when there is such a hell of a crisis. We should be literally working around the clock to resolve this. I know many of those on the working group have other things to do but there should be an urgency to identify how work can be speeded up. We should pull out all stops to do that.

In respect of the Bill, local authorities are best placed to provide inspectors because they have experts, architects and planners. The biggest problem in the Bill is planning because many places got permission and they have been put into development plans, area plans and master plans, and the repercussions of all those would have to be considered too. I am not clear on that area and we need to consider it. Anything that can speed up this process and pull all the little threads together is very important. That is what makes the Bill attractive to us.