Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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My fear is that the work will be done in here, the legislation will be passed and with the Department but the toolbox that which will be available to local authorities in particular but also the AHBs and so on, will not be widely understood or known. There are many vacant and derelict sites in my constituency. The Drake Inn site has been lying vacant for 15 years. Any one of the aforementioned initiatives could probably resolve that dereliction; it is not just about dereliction, however. I am not yet certain that there is an awareness and understanding at local authority level of the breadth of these schemes and the ways in which they can access the funding. That involves the Department spending money to make sure those who provide housing are aware of these schemes. More needs to be done in these years to make sure that happens.