Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I raise this issue because a meeting of the northern committee of Cork County Council took place yesterday at which a decision was announced to dispose of up to 106 affordable units, under the auspices of Cork County Council, 51 of which are to be disposed of through local auctioneers and the remaining 55 through the social leasing schemes announced by the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Michael Finneran, some time ago.

I am concerned that these houses will not sell on the open market. There is not a snowball's chance in hell that they will sell on the open market. There is an over supply of affordable houses within local authorities and, particularly, within the northern division of Cork County Council. I am sceptical about any attempts by Cork County Council to use the social leasing scheme because that will come under the ambit of the housing associations. Anybody who takes up residence in any of those 55 houses which come under the social leasing scheme will never have an opportunity to purchase those houses. Any person who may be on an affordable housing list and who may be eligible for financing will not consider going down that road if it means that for the duration of that lease he or she cannot own the house. I am also of the view that the 51 houses it is proposed to sell on the open market will not be sold.

I propose that there must be a greater degree of flexibility on the part of the Minister when dealing with local authorities in respect of housing issues. If the 106 houses to which I refer were advertised as rent-to-buy type lettings, they could then be occupied, which is extremely important. After two or three years, the occupants could then decide whether they wished to purchase those houses.

In one estate in the Mitchelstown area there are 20 houses, ten of which will be disposed of through the social leasing scheme while the other ten will be disposed of through the affordable housing scheme. For every day these houses remain unoccupied, problems arise in the estate to which I refer. If its is left to auctioneers to try to sell these houses in a market in which no one is buying, I contend that they will remain unoccupied for some time.

I put it to the Minister of State that a degree more flexibility and lateral thinking would provide people who are living in the area with the opportunity to rent those houses. They could do so through the social housing schemes or through a rent-to-buy scheme, under which they could eventually decide to buy if the opportunity arose. This would constitute a more common-sense and practical approach to dealing with the issue of unoccupied houses in certain estates.

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