Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a few questions on Pillars 4 and 5. On Pillar 5, I am disappointed that there has not been a publication of a vacant homes strategy. The Minister has decided to do rolling announcements of policy changes but a considerable amount of work was done by both us and external bodies in order to make submissions. A considerable body of work was also done by Minister's officials and his predecessor. Having a vacant homes strategy would facilitate us in tracking progress, or otherwise, by the Department. While the information we have on this sheet is welcome, it is not the same. Would he reconsider the publication of a strategy, in some shape or form, in order that we would be able to track progress?

The one point on which I would disagree with the Minister is that thousands of properties are available. There may not be ten of thousands of them, but there are thousands. It is important we have a clear and coherent strategy to tackle those. Has the idea of introducing a vacant property tax or a vacant unit tax been dropped completely or is that still being considered? I might have missed this at the start of the meeting but can the Minister confirm on the record the total number of repair and lease and buy and renew properties that have been bought into stock in order that we have those numbers?

In terms of the planning exemptions, while I acknowledge that we will debate them briefly later today, some of us have a particular concern about them. We all want to see a quicker turn around of above-the-shop commercial units into residential units and, therefore, there is no objection to that in principle. However, some of us have deep concerns about how a statutory instrument will ensure compliance and would not facilitate some unscrupulous property owners from converting units into very small and unacceptable units of accommodation that might have fire safety risks in particular. We are looking for some assurance on that issue.

On the private rented sector, a two to three month deposit is becoming the norm in parts of this city. People are not complaining to the Residential Tenancies Board.