Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I stress that those second-hand homes are not homes at the moment. They are blocked-up boarded-up buildings with four walls and maybe a roof. They are not occupied and have not been lived in for up to 20 or 25 years. We need to tackle that. A recent report for the Northern and Western Regional Assembly identified 45,000 such properties in the west and north west of the country alone. There is great potential for renovating. Even if only 50% of them were done, it would greatly help in regenerating towns and villages as well as giving people homes. We need to find a way for that to happen fairly fast.

My only other comment on public works contracts is that many local authorities and many contracting authorities have informed me of numerous gateway approvals they need to go through with their projects. Having been a Minister of State, I understand the frustration of it taking five or six years to get the job to a stage where construction starts. We need to pull that together. As the Minister said, the money is available but we need to get the projects started. We also need a flow of work in construction so that we can attract more people into the construction industry. They need to have more certainty about continuity of work rather than stop-start when work comes and goes. We have a bit of shaping up to do on that as well. I thank the Minister.