Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Actually, it is not okay in my opinion. The fact that a State-owned bank has 900 properties lying vacant is unforgivable. I do not know who is at fault here, whether it is the Housing Agency, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government or AIB. That we cannot get three State actors, as well as the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, to work together in the middle of a housing crisis is sinful. It reminds me of what happened during the Famine when we exported food abroad while Irish people starved. We have a housing crisis, with significant numbers of people homeless. We meet them all the time because they stay in the same hotels that many Deputies stay in. It is shocking to think that AIB, a bank into which we put billions, has 900 empty houses. The people who are homeless now put money into the bank. It is next to unforgivable. I raise this every time we meet and the figures are actually increasing. The number of houses that the bank has in its possession is increasing.