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

I will speak to amendment No. 17, which relates to section 23. I have always believed that if we sell local authority housing to tenants, the purchase money should be ring-fenced for housing. We should not deplete our housing stock. There should be a means of ring-fencing the money for that and for the maintenance of existing local authority housing stock. The money should be targeted on those two areas. For too long local authorities have been incrementally getting rid of and depleting their housing stock. That is an awful shame. Housing provision is being pushed to voluntary housing. The lead in delivering housing should be taken by the local authority, but the road we are taking is driving us more towards voluntary housing. In amendment No. 17 I am asking that we ring-fence this money, which is something on which we should all agree, and in certain cases it could be used for maintenance. That is crucial.

See this speech in context