John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)

When I hear a local authority asking for additional staff to deal with homelessness and other areas, I appreciate the huge personal impact dealing with homeless families has on the staff of local authorities. It is tough and takes its toll. When there is a shortage of staff, however, it not only puts pressure on the delivery of the critical service in terms of homelessness, it also puts staff under major additional pressure. I will get further information and I ask Mr. Benson to look into this matter as well.

I want to follow up on a topic Deputy McGrath raised. I refer to vacant local authority houses, boarded-up houses, voids, etc. Whatever they are called, these are houses that people experiencing extremely difficult situations are being deprived of. We have all the figures, and I will give them to the witnesses, for County Wicklow. There are 108 boarded-up houses in the county. When I say they are boarded up, I mean that they are literally boarded up. This puts an additional cost on the local authority because it has to hire the metal shutters that keep those houses boarded up, which is ludicrous. As we speak, there are 108 boarded-up houses in County Wicklow. Of those, six have been boarded up for more than five years.

When I speak to the staff in the county council - who do extraordinary work in terms of turning those units around and who have met all their targets - they tell me they are hamstrung regarding what they can do because of the allocation of funding from the Department. When I hear it is expected to turn around some of these units for an average of €11,000 and I look at the average cost in 2022 of €21,000, how can a figure as low as €11,000 be justified?

Much of the housing stock that is being returned to use is 40, 50 or 60 years old. Bringing it up to the necessary standard will cost considerably more than that amount. How does Mr. Doyle justify such a low-----