Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A situation in the country has been identified. The witnesses might confirm the number of units that are empty, vacant or derelict around the country. I know there are many in my own county which could be used for housing. Many Government plans intend to bring those into our system and for people to be housed. What is the cost, going forward, of a major renovation of those second-hand properties? I appreciate it can vary depending on the state of the properties. To give an example, in the most recent census, in Mayo, 24% of houses were deemed empty. There has been no construction done on many of them since 2010. We can say that many of these houses are not built to a high energy rating standard. What extra costs are the witnesses talking about that might account for the fact that, despite all these schemes they or the Minister have on the go, such as lease and repair, buy and renew, and so on, there does not seem to be much take-up of the schemes? Are we factoring in the real cost of renovating properties?