Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this important motion. I thank my colleagues in Sinn Féin for tabling it. The housing issue facing Ireland is beyond crisis point. Viewing the "RTÉ Investigates: Nightmare to Let" programme, it was appalling to see the situations in which some people have been forced to live by rogue landlords. Tenants' lives are being put at risk by unscrupulous landlords' disregard for basic health and safety and fire standards.

To say that there is a significant shortage of available properties around the country is an understatement. However, going by figures released in the 2016 census, there are 260,000 vacant houses. This is a disgrace. It is commonsensical that these houses would go a long way towards solving the immediate housing crisis.

I spent weeks with the Minister of State and his colleagues discussing matters during the formation of the Government. I was glad that the Government took on board the issues and suggestions raised by my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group and me about changing the use of units from commercial to residential and included them in A Programme for a Partnership Government, which reads, "The Action Plan will look at existing housing stock that is uninhabited, and vacant commercial units, with a view to incentivising the refurbishment and change of use to homes." However, I am disappointed that little progress has been made in this regard. Urgent action is needed to solve this problem.

While it is an imperative that standards be applied, there is also a duty on local authorities to minimise the time that houses are left vacant. There should be a strict limit on the turnover time for social housing from when it becomes vacant to when it is reoccupied as opposed to the position of those in Wetherton, Bandon, who have been waiting weeks on end to have people appointed to houses that have been completed and are ready for habitation. This is only to mention one example in west Cork, but there are many more, which is unacceptable.

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