Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for having to leave earlier. I missed the presentation. I want to make sure that I do not ask questions which were asked and will concentrate on housing. I was interested in the response to Deputy Burton that it was not the role of the council to evaluate the mechanisms or structures of housing systems. If it is not the council's job, whose is it? We have approximately 650 housing agencies in the country. Some time back, I asked how many they were employing. The top 100 employ more than 6,500 people. Do the witnesses consider that value for money? When they look at local authorities that have been denuded of technical staff from their housing offices since the boom, would it not make sense for some of these agencies to be affiliated with local authorities?

My second question relates to the issue of vacant housing. Today's paper mentioned incentives to bring some vacant housing back into use. Do the witnesses have a comment on how they see some of it being brought back into use? We have had rent-to-buy and other schemes that have not worked. I have traversed my county many times and there is no question that at least 10% of habitable properties are vacant. How would the witnesses incentivise using it or what advice do they have to do so? Vacant housing does not seem to be coming back into use. I ask the witnesses to forgive me if I am going outside their remit. I am new to the committee and want to see what their role is, but, equally, how value for money can be achieved and increased momentum generated in house building. We have dealt enough with health and know where some of the problems are there but we do not seem to be getting a handle on building houses.

There are 6,500 people employed in the 100 largest housing agencies. What if they were divided into and subsumed by the local authorities? Since I do not come back when I ask questions, my final point is on the issue of how one speeds up a system. We have people in the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment who are at a lesser grade than some of our planners and engineers at local authority level who are toing and froing on schemes. Would it not make more sense if a lump sum was given to local authorities with the freedom to go and get the job done?