Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We all agree that the numbers are not as high as we want them to be. The schemes have been put in place and they are attractive. We made changes to them to make them even more attractive. There is no reason the purchase and renew scheme cannot be used much more by local authorities which now understand this also. There are over 600 repair and lease-back properties in the system. Some 900 properties have been through the scheme and 600 are still being judged or worked on. I hope the majority will come through the system. We have changed the scheme to make it easier and more attractive. There is an option to lease back properties after five years. We are trying to place a focus on this project. Asking each local authority to have a vacant homes action plan, fund officers and put money behind the scheme is an attempt to place a focus on the issue. We should see a major improvement in the number of properties coming through both schemes, as well as others, in the months ahead. The vacant homes unit in the Department which was set up by the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, aims to drive this agenda to increase the level of activity. We will see increased activity in this space in the months ahead.

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