Mrs. Alice Doyle:

I wish to address a couple of the points the Senator raised, starting with the grant of €100,000. It would be generous if there were no inconsistencies in applying for it or using it. As we have discovered, however, the number of inconsistencies around the country, depending on the county council being dealt with, makes the grant a lot less attractive. Financially, it does look attractive. If we could get rid of the bureaucracy, I am sure many more people would take it up.

I cannot see how to get around the issue of holiday homes whose owners use them for a couple of months of the year. However, some derelict houses could be done up, and we could have farm tourism. In the past, we had farm guest houses and that kind of thing. Derelict houses could be done up on farms in some areas for renting out as holiday homes. People say they will be left vacant for part of the year, including in the winter, because people in Ireland tend to holiday very much in the late spring, summer and early autumn. Even where renting out in the non-holiday period is concerned, there are so many restrictions that people are very slow to rent. If they do put a tenant into a house from September, they want him or her out again in May because, perhaps, they want to rent the house for holiday accommodation on the farm. To put somebody out of accommodation after six months is not very easy.

The taxation of holiday-home income is very severe, which makes rental less attractive. I am not suggesting one should not pay any tax but saying there could be a preferential tax based on the fact that the rental would keep employment in the community. As has been said, if people come to an area on holiday they will contribute to that area. They contribute in that they buy their groceries there and spend their money in the local nightclub, pub and so on.

I absolutely agree that the information campaign of the rural organisations could be stepped up. From the perspective of the IFA, including the farm family committee, we believe, now that we are becoming more familiar with the concept in question, that we could promote it more in our communities. We do a lot of work on inheritance and succession. This could be linked in on the basis that it could be an alternative for supplying a second or third member of the family with a home, in addition to being a viable proposition that would add to the revitalisation of the rural community.

The problem with village and town dereliction is much worse than that of one-off houses. There are streets in small villages all around Ireland that are derelict. The sooner county councils face up to this and take some action to force people to use the buildings, the better. It would be a very big move.

The Senator talked about the lack of qualified labour. I recently had the opportunity to visit the new university in Waterford, South East Technological University. We were considering various apprenticeships and in this regard the university showed us its fantastic facilities for training builders and plasterers. It cannot fill the training positions. In the context of most of these, there is very poor supply. We will have to adopt an attitude to encouraging people to take up apprenticeships again, and we will need some labour because qualified labour is scarce. The scarcity makes it very difficult, particularly when subcontracting the building of houses. There is a period of 13 months in which to get the work done. A builder might get you as far as roof level in the first month, but then you will be left waiting for three months for a roofer to come and another two or three months for a plumber to come, meaning the 13 months will be used up.