Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Returning to the point about the role of NOAC and where we might see that into the future, a priority for myself and other members of the committee, if not all of us, is vacancy and dereliction. We need to get a handle on it. We need to get all the data together. That was supposed to happen with the local property tax but from what we can see, that has failed. We also know that the information on the derelict sites levy is not being kept up to date by any of the local authorities. The collection and collation of all data on derelict sites and vacant properties is something that NOAC would be very well placed to look at but I would not just do one of them.

I would not just include dereliction or vacancy. A comprehensive report would need to include both. We will probably discuss that here again.

I see in the report that from 2014 to 2019, there was a 32% increase in the number of adults in emergency accommodation who would be considered to be long-term homeless. Homeless deaths are an issue. We need to look at why people become homeless. We know that the mortality rate gets higher as people are homeless for longer. Are we looking at family homelessness?

I believe we need a Munster regional homeless authority to look at homelessness. Dublin has a body to do so, but we do not have anyone to collate the data for Cork city and Munster. Have the witnesses looked at that? Will they comment on it?