John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Barry Cowen for bringing this Bill before the House.

It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that significant work went into this in the form of consultation with stakeholders and experts in a range of fields related to this area. We have gone through the outline of the Bill in considerable detail and the idea of bringing together a one-stop shop to facilitate refurbishment works at these properties is a welcome development.

I am taken by the fact that, over the years, there have been various schemes to try to advance refurbishment, whether the living city initiative or living over the shop or so on. In particular, there was the repair and leasing scheme recently. Unfortunately, those schemes did not yield the results we might have expected. The repair and leasing scheme really has to be re-evaluated. I am not opposed to the scheme but it simply is not working and there is no point in letting something run on. The latest figures that I received were that there were no offers of properties in the South Dublin County Council area, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown or Fingal and eight properties were offered in the Dublin City Council area of which I understand that seven were deemed to be suitable and have not gone beyond that. The scheme was ambitious and intended to provide 800 units this year. It seems to be way off target. I am not opposing and am not giving out to the Minister of State but pleading with him to find out why it is not working-----

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