Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is confusion there then. The Minister of State is indicating that there is no problem with the money while Limerick City and County Council has informed me on a number of occasions that it is awaiting approval from the Department in respect of the void houses. I have a list here of 70 houses. There are always going to be vacant houses. Nobody is disputing that fact. These houses are in the metropolitan area of Limerick and are boarded up. Other houses have been allocated but the people involved cannot move in because there is no funding to do them up. They are not on this list of 70, so there are actually more houses.

One family was allocated a house a year and a half ago. Another was allocated a house in March and they have still not been able to move in. Officials from the Department were in Limerick on 1 August and visited those two houses. To date, no work has yet been done in respect of either. There is a problem. If the Minister of State is indicating that there is no problem with the money being allocated to the council, then what is the problem? The council is stating it has not got the money. The Minister of State is telling me that there is no problem with the money being drawn down yet the houses are still boarded and vacant.

People are not allocating them. There are more than 70 families in the mid-west region, the bulk of them in Limerick city. The problem is that people see the boarded up houses and see their own families in hotels. These are in areas where people would cut off their own arms to live in. The Minister of State needs to find out what is going on. There seems to be much bluster and bluff, with the Minister of State indicating that money is not the problem while Limerick City and County Council is telling me it does not have the money.

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