Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am going to speak on my amendment now because there is no point having two debates on it. My amendment proposes that a report be produced on this issue and that it would come back to this committee at an early stage for a decision. Deputy Denis Naughten has made many of the points in this regard already. Some of us have been talking about this issue for years. Its impact is really brought home to us at election time when we are going door to door. We see many vacant houses where nobody is listed on the electoral register. It is possible to see all the signs, such as an access ramp or a handrail outside a house, and know that the person who did live there has gone into a nursing home. The result is a perfectly good house lying idle. It makes no sense whatsoever from anybody’s perspective.

In the context of the housing crisis it is madness for us to leave thousands of good-quality houses vacant simply because the Department has not been able to find a way of dealing with this situation equitably and fairly. There are many ways this issue could be addressed and some suggestions have been made in this regard. Deputy O’Dea introduced a Private Members' Bill in the previous Dáil. It referred to the possibility of approved housing bodies, AHBs, taking over the management of houses in these circumstances. The hard line taken by the Department on rental income being assessed against a person in the context of the fair deal scheme, resulting in a euro-for-euro loss, is crazy. It is in nobody’s interest to take that hard-line view of this situation.

We need some creative thinking in this regard. We cannot defend houses lying idle. They do not add anything to an area, because vacant houses can be broken into and there are also other issues regarding their management. The main aspect, though, is the length of the housing lists and the great demand from local authorities and the public to find accommodation while thousands of houses are lying idle. It is not possible to defend such a situation on any level. My proposal, therefore, is that a report be produced and quickly brought back to this committee to enable us to examine how we will address this situation and what is the most effective way of doing it. There is something to be said for the proposal made by Deputy O'Dea in respect of having an agency involved that could take over the responsibility for the management and letting of properties in these circumstances.

There are different ways of looking at this issue, but it makes no sense to do what we are doing now. Strict rules across Europe apply to houses being left vacant. We should be doing that here as well in respect of all vacant houses. It should not be possible to leave houses lying vacant for any reason beyond six months. There are many houses in circumstances like that now. This is something the Minister of State can have direct control over. Taking such an approach makes absolute sense. In that context, I urge her as strongly as I possibly can to accede to this request from all of us.