Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

There are only eight staff in the Department's vacant homes unit and there were nine last year. A question was put to the Minister, which he answered, about boarded-up vacant houses. Between the tenant in situ scheme and the boarded-up local authority houses, which are owned by the State, we could house every family in emergency accommodation. This is a solution. It would not clear the homeless figures, but the Minister has in his hands the power to house every family and child in emergency accommodation if he were to give the funding to local authorities to address boarded-up housing, which, as he said, amounts to antisocial behaviour but is owned by the State, and the tenant in situ scheme. He could be the first Minister to eliminate child homelessness. Would that not be something to achieve? We would do whatever we could on our side to support him.