Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses again. It is great to get the different views and policies of the two local authorities and to hear how they are operating. There is certainly good work being done.

To touch base on the returns or the voids, Mr. Grimes made the point that Waterford City and County Council's goal has been to get back to a turnaround time of 15 weeks, which is a great ambition. That is the ambition we should look at. The point was made earlier - and this is an issue - that Cork City Council has, I think, 76 properties in this regard, which is unbelievable. The issue that keeps coming up today, however, is the amount of money the Department is spending to get voids back into use. I think Ms Curley referred a number of times to a figure of €11,000. Is the maximum not €25,000 or €26,000? Why is a figure of €11,000 coming into play?