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

Again, Deputy O'Sullivan has addressed many issues in one question. People often mention cases concerning HAP properties. There are more than 40,000 HAP tenancies. We have not received 40,000 complaints. The majority of these tenancies work well and the tenants are happy. They want something permanent in the long run and that is fine. Some do and some do not. HAP tenancies are often portrayed here as a major problem. There are some cases of HAP tenancies that are not satisfactory. We all accept that. However the majority of cases are positive. If there are a couple individual problematic cases, I will be happy to look at them.

The Deputy mentioned three void properties. I do not know where or what they are but she can always bring details of cases to me and we will be happy to look at them. We regularly engage with local authorities on this issue. We want properties to be turned around much more quickly, in line with turnaround times in the private sector. Many local authorities achieve that and have very good timelines, while others perform poorly. We have worked with the local authorities on that. Again, we want a planned maintenance approach. Local authorities are meant to fund this from their own resources and rents. Some will say they do not get enough from their rental schemes. That matter is also being examined. In the past couple of years, our voids programme has brought nearly 10,000 properties which had been left empty by previous administrations back into the system. They are now back in use. That is money well spent. We want to see it spent more quickly and that is also something we are working on.

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