Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge that there has been movement. The reality is, however, that local authority housing lists are lengthy, exhausting and deeply frustrating. There are people who have been on those lists for a long time.

The waiting times on the list, measured in years, are now moving into double figures. We need accurate statistics on the length of time for which flats and houses undergo maintenance. There is a discrepancy between the figures of the local authority, in my case Dublin City Council, and those of the National Oversight and Audit Commission. The reality is that the turnaround is slow. I accept what the Minister of State says about certain works that have to be done, but properties undergo maintenance for an inordinate length of time before they are reallocated. Are enough resources devoted to maintenance to ensure a speedy turnaround? Dublin City Council has one of the highest numbers of persons on its local authority housing list. I see a lack of urgency. I contrast that with the speed and ease with which student accommodation is going up in Dublin 1 and 7. We have discussed this before and I still cannot understand why this is seen as a solution. Students are only there for eight or nine months. That student accommodation, which consists of lovely buildings, is going up so quickly but it takes months before renovation of houses and flats begins to allow them to be given to people on the housing list.

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