Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I request the adjournment of the Dáil under the terms of Standing Order 31 on the following matter of urgent national and local importance, namely, that 2,500 local authority houses not included in refurbishment schemes are lying vacant and that some local authorities take an unacceptably long time to relet or repair and relet vacant houses, choosing instead to fit steel shutters and allow long periods of vacancy resulting in the impression that there is an abundance of social housing available, ghettoising whole estates and hindering the establishment of a sense of community. As the taxpayer pays for rent assistance, shutters and extra repairs resulting from long periods of vacancy, it is unacceptable that the reletting of social housing is not dealt with as a matter of urgency.

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