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

On local authority voids and vacant houses. We have seen a very slow turnaround time in many, though not all, local authorities. What can the Minister do to help turn these houses around? In Cork city there can be up to 500 voids at any one time and hundreds more in the county. I am looking for a solution here. What can the Department do to turn these around?

I have a suggestion. Local authorities must apply to the Department for funding to renovate or repair these houses to get them back in use. I ask the Minister to give the local authorities the power to do the work so that they can turn them around as quickly as possible. I ask that funding be provided for one or more specific crews of carpenters, plasterers and electricians in each local authority, depending on the number of houses it has, to turn around vacant housing quickly. Is anything new planned to bring these voids into use faster?