Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. McCarthy. I am all for the approach of encouraging local authorities and there is a lot to be said for the good practice seminar. We are in a housing disaster at the moment, so there is no excuse for Cavan, for example, having a vacancy rate of almost 5% when a neighbouring county, Monaghan, has a rate of less than 1%. I am quite certain that anything Monaghan can do Cavan would be able to do.

There are no excuses. The data has been available for a number of years, and we are seeing the progress the data being publicly available should create around vacancy levels in particular. There needs to be a thorough explanation. If there is a particular barrier for outliers with high levels of vacancy we need to discuss those barriers, whether they are about funding, staffing, a cultural lethargy or structural barriers which can be addressed. If so, let us address them and get houses back into use.

Is there anything else NOAC can do or is it down to the Minister, Department and political system? Is there anything else NOAC can do to drive change?