Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's commitment to completing a report on this issue and making that available in advance of the next budget. The analysis to be done in the coming months will have to take account of the complexities involved, some of which I highlighted on Committee Stage. As a Deputy, a significant number of cases have been referred to me concerning delays around the granting of probate - it can drag on for many months - as well as legal disputes about the ownership of property and questions about properties that are under the control of receivers and properties that belong to people in nursing homes, giving rise to concerns that any rental income would affect the computation of their liabilities under the fair deal scheme.

The House can support the general principle of an analysis, but the Minister will need to get accurate baseline data, which he has recognised in his amendment. We need to see a profile of the more than 181,000 vacant properties divided into some of the categories to which I just referred. If this is to be an effective intervention by the State to help bring more of the housing stock into use, it will have to recognise those complexities.

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