Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State's reply is complacent given the evident background. Excluding holiday homes, the CSO figures show 46,000 houses vacant in Dublin city, 25,000 in Cork city, 9,000 in Limerick city and 16,000 in Galway city. The Minister of State would know better than anyone that the Government's social and affordable housing programme has collapsed. According to Government data, the programme has delivered less than half of the amount set out in the national development plan.

Does the Minister of State see a serious contradiction in the rental accommodation scheme, the Government's latest initiative, in Dublin city being massively oversubscribed when 46,000 units are vacant? We cannot offer local authority tenancies to a housing list that is running into the thousands. Some 9,000 people are on the affordable housing list. For the 3,000 whose incomes justify their applications, only 300 houses are coming on stream. Is this not a serious mismatch in public policy, namely, tolerating a housing crisis despite so many vacant properties? Surely, the Department has the capacity to link them.

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