Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Petition No. 2 of 2022, "Homelessness is Cancer - blocked-up houses are not the answer" is under the name of Mr. Eamon Broughan. This petition was submitted on 28 January 2022 and relates to a housing estate in Kildare where houses were bought by the county council in 2007 and have been blocked up since. Starting in February 2022 the secretariat contacted Kildare County Council on behalf of the petitioner several times and did not receive a response to the petition. During this time, the petitioner also contacted the committee secretariat seeking updates and expressing his frustrations with the secretariat. On 1 July 2022, Kildare County Council responded. The committee recommends that the correspondence from Kildare County Council be forwarded to Mr. Broughan for comment and the petition and all the related correspondence be sent for comment to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien. Do members have any views?

Before I let members speak, in regard to a petitioner contacting the committee secretariat and expressing his frustrations, I want to refute that. The committee here and its secretariat worked tirelessly trying to get answers from Kildare County Council and any delay was on its part, not on the part of the secretariat or the clerk. I wish to express my satisfaction that they have done all they could since the petition came in and they contacted Kildare County Council. I wish to make members aware that the delay was on the other side, not on the part of the secretariat or the clerk.