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

The housing budget has been cut by more than €1 billion since 2008. Even in the past few years, there have been cutbacks. While a stimulus package was announced, the budget was reduced by €60 million this year. The Minister of State has announced measures that will ameliorate this to some extent. She is addressing a number of voids across the country and trying to sort them out, but we need to adopt measures for the future to make sure this does not happen again. That requires resources. The amendment would set down rules for the future. I have outlined a number of areas in which they could be applied. I am aware of houses being boarded up for one year, with neighbours going made because of the anti-social behaviour and other problems this generates. That is unacceptable. The problems vary across local authorities. Some are worse than others in this regard.

What I have outlined in my amendment is conservative, as even Fianna Fáil has acknowledged, which must be a compliment. We need to provide resources and prescribe the timeframes I have provided for in the amendment because there is such a crisis that we cannot afford to fail to do so. When a local authority is short of money, these targets are needed in the context of repossessions and so on.

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