Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and the Minister. I have the last speaking slot and I have a few questions.

I come from Longford and a number of members have raised the issue of package treatment plants being used ahead of Irish Water being able to upgrade sewerage systems. In Ballymahon and Edgeworthstown, which are the second- and third-biggest towns in Longford, we cannot build anything because of this limitation.

I would like to see those proposals or something along those lines sent to the local authorities advising them that where there is a need for plants, we have a company in the county. Butler Manufacturing Services, run by a colleague of the Minister, supplies them all over the country and internationally but we do not use that company in towns in our own county where we need houses built. I thank the Minister for his positive comments in relation to that. I would like to see more local authorities roll that out ahead of the capital works that would be done and then they could be tapped into the public scheme.

I ask about any future plans for affordable housing in, yet again, Longford in particular. There have been no private developments since 2008 in our county. We were blighted with section 23 at the time but we have no private development being built for the market or for people who are looking for starter homes, which is the better term we should use. Are there any potential plans for that?

As regards the vacant stock, we had significant vacant stock in my local authority two years ago. We have done a massive amount of work and spent millions of euro on it, yet we are being compensated by the Department for €11,000 per unit whereas the average cost to bring them up to the standard that is there is €40,000 per unit. We have a significant shortfall in the local authority with regard to the cost of upgrading them. I will come back in with another question afterwards.