Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I assure Deputy Higgins that I will leave plenty of time for her. I welcome the Supplementary Estimate and congratulate the Minister on all the work he is doing. He has hit the ground running and everybody on the committee agrees that he is the man with all the solutions. We are invigorated by his efforts to date, as I am sure everyone here agrees.

I want to follow up on the points raised by the Chairman regarding heritage officers and county architects. In Longford County Council, both of those roles are in place and they are transformative. The additional appointment of biodiversity officers would be a very welcome step. I am delighted to hear that more staff are coming. One of the major challenges we have in following through on the very ambitious plans to reform housing provision is the need for additional staff.

I want to flag a number of issues with the Minister, most of which I have already raised with him. Ballymahon in County Longford needs a fire station. Center Parcs is doing a major new development there, involving an additional 500 units and several hundred more staff. The company has flagged the need for a new fire station, which I will follow up on with the Minister.

I previously raised with him issues to do with the old shared ownership scheme. It is punitive for people to try to buy themselves out of that scheme. I understand his officials are having a look at the issue and doing a scoping exercise to see what can be done to resolve it. Is there any progress on that to date?

Regarding the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme and the commitment to a fresh start for people in second relationships, I would like to see something definite on that in the next couple of months. Many people are in limbo as a result of the current uncertainty.

Affordable housing provision needs to be rolled out throughout the State, an ambition I know the Minister shares. We really need to see it being done.

As we become more carbon and environmentally aware, an issue I am increasingly finding is that many elderly people in rural areas are living in inadequate houses. For instance, I know of a lady in a rural location who owns her own home and is in receipt of a payment from the Department of Social Protection. Her house is only valued at €60,000 and, if she sells it, she will not be able to buy an adequate replacement. There are schemes operating in Dublin whereby people can hand over properties to the local authorities and swap them for a new one.

I would like to see the Minister's officials look at something similar for rural Ireland to help those, increasingly older people, caught in such inadequate housing.

I hope I have left enough time for my colleague, Deputy Higgins.