Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Over the years we have had many issues with planners and planning. Inquiries and investigations have been carried out and hundreds of millions spent on tribunals with little or no return or convictions. Of course I do not for a moment suggest that the issues I raise are in the same category but, nonetheless, they are serious.

This issue has been brought to my attention and that of others, including the local media. The Dundalk Democrat and Councillor Tomás Sharkey have done much to expose it. The purchase of private homes by local authorities has been an integral part of how we deliver social housing and meet mounting housing need in this State. At the height of the boom, Louth County Council bought 18 homes of which two were from their own staff. That is an obvious conflict of interest.

While it might not always be negative, the potential for corruption is too great to allow it to happen.

The two homes in question belonged to senior executive officers in the council. Each recommended the other's for purchase. This, in itself, is an obvious problem but it goes further. One of the properties has serious questions over its suitability. A three-bed bungalow in Tullagee, Knockbridge, purchased for €137,500, had no building energy rating, BER, when signed off for purchase. When a BER analysis was carried out, it received an E1, which is very low. Thus, the house is not suitable for a council to be purchasing.

When a tenant was moved in, they were unhappy with the insulation and requested to be moved as it was too cold. The council then applied for and used significant funding from the SEAI to upgrade the home to make it suitable for occupation. That is further taxpayers' money to upgrade a home that should not have been purchased in the first instance given its condition.

There are further questions over rumoured inspections that yielded negative reports on the home before and after purchase which are now missing or unavailable. The owner of the property, in his capacity as an executive officer, wrote to solicitors confirming the property had been inspected by a clerk of works and that the "structure is in order". A response from the council stated:

The house was inspected by the Clerk of Works on December 1, 2010 and a detailed inspection form completed. This outlined various defects and areas in need of upgrading, including insulation, but attested to the structural integrity of the property.

After it was occupied for a time by a local authority tenant, additional works were carried out to address heat loss from this property.

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