Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan, in recent years I have never ceased to be amazed at the amount of time spent by some people in emergency accommodation. The definition of emergency accommodation is certainly very open to question. An emergency could normally be expected to be for three or four weeks but it develops into six years on the north side of Dublin in many cases, which is a scandal and a waste of money from the point of view of the client. There is perhaps a vested interest in some cases in actually keeping people in that type of accommodation, which we are trying to address.

In response to Deputy Wallace, we are again going to work through local authorities in terms of direct construction provision. Contrary to what the Deputy might think, there is a lot of interest by builders and developers in regard to these matters. I am delighted we are using local authorities again to go back to the traditional way of building houses for families in local authority areas. There are 212 "voids" in the Dublin City Council area at present and we will be addressing those in 2014, in addition to some of the work Dublin City Council will be doing in terms of direct build. That will help to provide more houses for people.

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