Mr. Patrick Davitt:

It is disgusting to see that happening. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I wish to go back to the point about HAP and the list of recommendations that need to be done. We have anecdotal evidence only that when properties that are rented through HAP, the inspectors come and the landlords gets a list of things to do. However, if they are done prior to the tenants going into the properties, we find that there are not that many things to do. I do not know what different inspectors in different areas do differently in these inspections that the Deputy spoke about. In some cases, there are not that many there.

On vacant and derelict properties, one very important point is that 50 tonnes of carbon are put into a new property. Vacant and derelict properties are already in place and that carbon is accounted for. We have spoken about this many times. Why can the Government not give landlords a grant to do up these properties? Perhaps the Government will not get the money back, but it will at least get the properties in question into the rental sector. It is a good idea. We have done much work on this and come up with many ideas on it as well. If those ideas were taken on board, we would see many of those properties on the rental market. There are 22,000 derelict properties and more than 100,000 vacant properties throughout the country. Many of those can come into the rental property scene. I think it is easy enough to get them into it, being quite honest. However, we need to get a bigger picture and think outside the box.