Ms Bairbre Nic Aongusa:

In respect of vacant properties, action 16 in the rental strategy is about the national roll-out of the repair and lease scheme. The Minister has recently been talking about that. It will be rolled out nationally. This scheme is targeted at owners of vacant properties who cannot afford to access funding required to bring them up to standard for rental property. The cost of the necessary repairs will be met upfront by the local authority and the approved housing body and the houses are then leased for a period to be used for social housing, which will alleviate the pressure on the rental market generally. There is also a buy and renew scheme whereby the Department makes funding available to local authorities to buy up vacant properties and make them available for social housing. Similarly, under Rebuilding Ireland, the Housing Agency has a fund of €70 million to buy vacant properties from the portfolios of banks, discussions have started with them and contracts have been signed to bring over 200 properties on board as well.

Very often, discussion takes place about whether the fair deal scheme is a factor in vacant properties. We have been working with the Housing Agency, to whose national vacant house reuse strategy Mr. Silke referred, and have commenced an engagement with the Department of Health about the terms of the fair deal scheme - the rules it has regarding the financial assessment of income from rental where the owner of the property is in a nursing home - to see whether there is scope for amending the financial assessment rules to enable more properties that might be lying vacant as a result of their owners being in nursing homes to be brought back into use in the rental sector or for sale in the market. Obviously, this would be a matter for the Minister for Health to determine at the end of the day.

Deputy Casey asked about the inspection of rental properties and why the Department could not go for the 100% target. Ultimately, it comes down to resources. It has been a recurring theme for us over the past couple of years. During the years when there was very little activity in housing in local authorities, the housing departments and inspection departments lost a lot of their capacity so it is a question of building up capacity. We are starting from a very low base. If we get to 25% by 2020, that will mean that every rented property will be inspected at least once every four years. Once we get to that, we might be able to look at increasing the target. Ultimately, it is down to resources. My first task will be engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in respect of the Estimates for 2018 to get the resources we need to enable us to focus on this target of 25%.