Ms Caroline Timmons:

On data, the Senator is right on the importance of data to vacancy. It has been an issue for years. There is high-level data but one needs the exact address or the exact house and to know what is wrong with that house. Sometimes, that seems to go as far as talking to the neighbour to know what is going on with that house. That is where the vacancy survey has been a positive development.

We have put much time and effort into developing a good GIS unit in the Department, which has been a huge benefit to the vacant homes unit and other units in the Department, particularly in planning, in terms of the exact mapping that the Senator is talking about and understanding where things are and where to target resources. The Senator is right that Waterford has a particularly good tech unit but that can be mirrored in other local authorities. In addition, there can be more connectivity from local to national level, which is a particular focus that we now can bring in. For example, when someone does a vacancy survey now, or whether a vacant homes grant is applied for, comes up into a dashboard, which we can see. We have this real-time data that we can now access that informs Government policy. That connection between operations, on the ground data and Government policy is forming and can be seen in action these days.

On the Senator’s other point on accessing European funding, I have travelled in other European cities where you see these big buildings that have been used in that way, so we are interested in learning more about how they do that, particularly for the affordable housing project. We have applied for I think €5 million in funding under that and I think we will get an answer in July or August. I am hopeful we will get some. Apart from just the funding, it is the expertise and the learning of how other countries have done it and how they have gotten value for money. Technically, they can be very complex and expensive projects. How do we do this in the best way possible for this particular State? It is absolutely an area for us to develop into.

I will hand over to my colleague.