John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It would be remiss of me not to mention a point that I raised in the Seanad. I note the response that came back and I know the Chair has just corrected me to say I should not have mentioned repair and lease again, but I am going to. I put in a proposal to the Department to have a cost rental version of the repair and lease scheme. There is a 20% discount on market rent inbuilt into the repair and lease scheme as it is constituted at present. In an area like Waterford that has delivered a huge volume of repair and lease, the issue is that we need to have that mix of tenure on certain streetscapes, which we cannot use currently with the existing schemes. If anywhere was best placed to run a pilot in that respect, it would be Waterford.

I have put in how it would be done. Waterford City and County Council is willing to operate a pilot in that respect and I ask that it is granted sanction. The issue is that it probably sits more on Ms Timmons’s side of the house, even though the repair and lease scheme, as it currently sits, is on the social side. Perhaps Mr. Ó Coigligh, because he is sitting in the middle, might bridge between both and might be able to give sanction for same.