While planning permission is now much easier to get, it would drive through that development if officers were appointed in councils. It could be part of the role of the empty homes officer to look at these properties which are vacant and derelict as well as at properties on brown field sites which are derelict and past use. It could be an important focus to provide increased accommodation as the services are in place. One has the water, sewerage, footpaths, lighting and everything else.

I raise also matters relating to Louth. I keep raising the following point. There has been positive CPO progress there. However, while other local authorities are doing it too, they are not all working at the pace they should be. How can the Minister increase the pressure on local authorities which are not doing their jobs to ensure they step up to the mark and do the business? The following is an important point. Louth County Council has a huge debt. It incurred €20 million or €30 million in debt in buying land at the height of the boom and is now faced with servicing that debt at a crippling cost. Is there a possibility the Minister might be able to aggregate those loans to take some of the burden off local authorities like Louth County Council so that they can focus on providing more homes and refurbishing existing ones? It should be a condition of doing so that the authorities would have to commit to using the funding released as a result to provide housing.

Perhaps the most important point I will make today is that in the past few weeks approximately 15 local authority tenants had their gas boilers fail but the county council does not have the funding to replace them. When one visits a family of four or five including children with disabilities and people who are sick and unwell in their homes who cannot light the fire and have no heat, it is not good enough. The local authority can do ordinary repairs but the cost of replacing a boiler in full is a serious problem. It is hugely important to ensure that any family or person who pays the rent and is a good tenant is not left in that appalling situation. Week after week, they are told they have top priority but the authority does not have the funds. It will have the funds in the turnover of the new year, but they need them now. Can the Minister look at that? There are also some older people who were corporation tenants and who cannot replace their boilers. I do not know if anyone else has that problem, but it is a very serious one for many families and we must find a way to assist them.

I welcome the Minister's proposal to introduce sanctions for people who do not meet their requirements under residential tenancies legislation. Criminal sanctions are an absolute deterrent. If one knows for sure that one will be hit on the head with a very significant fine, one will not break the law. The small number of landlords in this category would instead ensure they treated their tenants in accordance with the law.

I support a constitutional right to housing. It is a good idea. What one has to do is balance the measure to impose a duty on local authorities under such a constitutional amendment to act reasonably and with due consideration for the needs of the individual. That is how the Constitution would be interpreted. It would not mean that everybody would get a house just because he or she wanted one; it would mean that housing needs would have to be met proportionately, in good time and in a fair way. Some people are not having their needs met but I welcome the progress being made. I thank the Chair.