Joe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael)

Returning to the vacant and derelict house grants, they are a fantastic idea and we have got a lot of houses back into use and we have got people back in to towns and village centres which had been dead. We are well aware of the costs. Can we look at increasing those grants in future budgets? They have been a fantastic idea but they seem to have died off a bit. Can more be invested in this? Residential development over commercial properties is also important in the bigger cities and towns. We are all aware of the amount of residential accommodation lying idle in towns and cities. Can those be looked at? Another thing that would help young people is staged payments while these works are being carried out.