Michael Mulcahy (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

We have a new Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Finneran, and I spoke to him about what is going on in Dublin city. I believe that the city needs a housing action plan, driven by a clear indication of need. The last analysis carried out by Dublin City Council for which we have figures dates back to 2005. I am aware that the council is preparing another analysis that it intends to publish in September or October of this year. When that analysis is available, we will need a plan that is co-ordinated between the four Dublin councils, which should then be told by the Minister of State to get their act together with regard to housing construction in Dublin.

One of the areas in which the council has failed is that of empty houses. There are possibly hundreds of empty houses around the city. People come into our clinics and wonder why they cannot have the houses in certain streets that have been boarded up. The reality is that the local authorities have not been quick enough to take repossession of these houses and get them out to new tenants. People across all parties have said this and it has been acknowledged as a problem.

I welcome the decision of the Labour Party to put down this motion, but it is considerably unbalanced. It seems to be blaming entirely the developer who won these contracts for different PPP schemes.

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