Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the witnesses for staying with us. I have a couple of follow-up questions. To return to the theme of housing and the significant issue of local authority vacant housing and voids, it has been estimated that there are more than 3,000 vacant properties across the country. In respect of value for money and public expenditure, when we are spending €50,000 a year on emergency accommodation per family and close to €20,000 a year per individual, how does it make sense that we have such a large stock of vacant local authority housing, with the local authorities stating there is a funding issue with bringing many of those back into use? Does the Department have a role to play in ensuring value for money in terms of how it is spent in respect of housing needs, in order that we can get those properties back into use, instead of spending it on emergency accommodation for example?