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

The amendment allows me to question the Minister of State in regard to the whole area of refurbishment of vacant units throughout the country. I note the Taoiseach spoke about this yesterday, in particular about his own worries and fears, despite being in office for the last three years, about the length of time it was taking for those houses to be made available by local authorities to suitable tenants, notwithstanding the spiralling housing waiting lists throughout the country.

It is that area I want to address. I know the Minister of State has made funds available specifically to local authorities to address those issues and for a refurbishment programme of vacant units. However, until such time as individual local authorities notify me and others of the inroads, if any, that may be made into those distressing figures, by virtue of the funds that have been made available, I want to know what are the Government's plans other than that. Some local authorities, such as my own, always reallocated the funds garnered from tenant purchase schemes to the refurbishment of existing units. I have made proposals in recent times to the Minister of State where families of those on waiting lists, who might be allocated such a unit, would have the availability of expertise within their own families to refurbish these units. Perhaps the tenancy agreement could reflect this and the rent could obviously reflect the works carried out. Is it not something like that, something outside the box, that needs to be done by the Minister of State and her Department in an effort to address this grave problem that exists in the absence of adequate funding to make them suitable for families?

Is the Minister of State aware at this stage, having made the allocation to the local authorities, of the inroads that will be made? Is she aware of the continued absence of funding? Is she aware how many units specifically within each local authority area will not be dealt with because of the lack of available funding? That being the case, what proposals has she, if any, to address this issue in a more meaningful manner in the future?

While this does not fall within the remit of the Bill before the House, given this is such a serious debate and given the huge crisis in the provision of housing for those on waiting lists throughout the country, she might be able to indicate she is considering such schemes, options or initiatives which might better address the problem, rather than the age-old action of throwing money at it, especially in the absence of adequate funding to address that very issue.

See this speech in context