Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome the budget that has been allocated and with every bone in my body I believe the Minister of State's heart is in the right place. However, properties in the Dublin City Council area are not being put back on the market quickly enough. People contact me on a regular basis to say they are aware of houses on a particular road which are boarded up. It is very frustrating for any public representative to think such houses are out there. With my hand on my heart I can state a number of properties in my constituency have been vacant for more than a year and nothing has happened to them. They need to be looked into. The local authority needs to be challenged by the Minister of State with responsibility for housing to ensure the budget which has been allocated is used immediately. This morning I spoke to the housing manager in one of the offices who told me he cannot obtain the funding to put 27 houses in his area back on the market. We are losing a huge amount of potential rent from people and we are giving out a huge amount in rent allowance.

I also have a question on the units in NAMA. I come from the inner city and I am completely taken aback by the number of apartment blocks which remain vacant with nobody living in them. I know from looking at many of them that little work needs to be done to put them on the market. Does the Minister of State have any plans to work with NAMA to do something with these complexes and make them available to local authorities so we might be able to house some of those on the waiting list and get some people out of rented accommodation which is inadequate for their needs?

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