Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State said more than half the properties available are unsuitable because they are not in locations where there is a need and a list for local authority houses. There are 100,000 on housing waiting lists throughout the country. The Minister of State would do us all a favour if she were to tell us these areas where there is no need for houses to meet local authority housing waiting lists. A total of 4,000 houses are available. The Minister of State has said 2,000 are in areas where there is no demand. It is incumbent on her to inform the House where she believes there is no demand given that, as Deputy Boyd Barrett said, we are inundated with requests from people seeking to advance their situation and who find themselves without the ability to be allocated a home by local authorities.

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