Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I apologise for interrupting. It is just that time is against us. This may be something to put to the other two groups. I have a major issue with the number we are being given. There 146,000 vacant properties. I will tell a short story. I got a property put on Cork City Council's derelict sites list a number of years ago. I met the owner in the bar one night and he told me I was an awful bags. I asked him why and he said it was because I had put his property on the derelict sites list. I told him I had as it was empty 32 years. I told this story in the last Dáil. As the property went on the derelict sites list, he was paying 7% of the value of the house. He went away and renovated it into a three-bedroom apartment and a two-bedroom apartment. If members want to google it, there is a pub on Blarney Street in Cork called The Joshua Tree and right next door to it they will be able to see the brand new doors and windows. That landlord sat on that property. He had only owned it for 28 years. "For the love of God", I said to him. He is a good guy. Maybe incentives such as the new croí cónaithe scheme and the new derelict sites funding helped, but what can we do to incentivise landowners and people who have these properties? What can the Government do? We could solve a housing crisis if we could get those properties in play.