Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I want to raise the issue of the indicative timeline for the housing plan. A number of members talked about additional money being put into the vacant property grants. I come from a rural county, Longford. On every boreen in the county I am beginning to see housing come back into use but unfortunately, in some of the towns, I still see a lot of derelict properties not being utilised. I know that previously the repair and leasing scheme was not being utilised to do what it was meant to do and bring those back into use. In the Minister of State's own county of Waterford a significant number of properties were delivered under that scheme. What are the thoughts on that? Are there any thoughts on funding for that as it has come up in numerous conversations on the lack of infrastructure? I will give the example of two towns in my own county, Ballymahon and Edgeworthstown, the second- and third-largest towns in the county. The wastewater treatment system capacity is insufficient. This means that no developments can be done. Yet we could have a developer come along with a developer package treatment, maybe supported by the Department of housing. This could be put in place until such time as the treatment plant is upgraded. Has any consideration been given to working with developers in this way, once what they would install is up to proper standards?

Deputy Ó Broin mentioned that the reletting period has increased from 32 to 35 weeks. Locally, we had voids and these are being upgraded. The local authority has found itself down a considerable number of million euro where it brought these voids up to current standards. However, the grant for this is €11,500. Has any consideration been given to increasing this grant for local authorities when it comes to upgrading any houses before they are relet?