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

Last year, the Minister's Department only funded 85 voids. These are the local authority houses that are boarded up in every local authority area. There are more than 500 in Cork. Why does the Minister not fund the local authorities? I come from an area where there is social housing. Does the Minister know the damage that is done by the presence of boarded-up houses? It results in gangs, antisocial behaviour and dumping. It has a negative effect on a community to see houses left to go to rack and ruin. On the other side, people who are looking for houses are looking at these properties. I am putting forward a solution here that I put to the Minister's Department last week. Will the Minister let local authorities do the work and get the houses rented out within weeks? In the Cork City Council area, it takes 76 weeks to get a house turned around. Some are left idle for years. Will the Minister cut the red tape and the bureaucracy and tell the local authorities to get people into these houses now?