Dáil debates

Wednesday, 19 May 2021

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

Vacant Properties

9:52 am

Photo of Thomas GouldThomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are approximately 92,712 vacant homes throughout the State. This does not include homes on the derelict sites register. This is a shocking statistic and it is clearly a very serious problem. The Government has committed to tackling vacant homes, as did its predecessor. Yet, there are only three full-time vacant homes officers across the entire State. This is nothing short of scandalous. How can the Minister of State stand over this?

When I asked how a part-time vacant homes officer is meant to tackle this issue in somewhere like Cork city where there are 8,880 vacant homes, he told me that staffing is an issue for the local authority. That is all very well and good except that these officers are there under a Government initiative. The councils did not establish the role of vacant homes officers. They did not establish the buy and renew or repair and lease schemes. They did not welcome vulture funds into this State with open arms like the Government and its best friends in Fine Gael did. It is, therefore, not a council issue; it is a Government issue.

The Government has missed by 70% the targets set under the vacant homes scheme. A promise was made that 5,600 homes would be returned. However, not even 1,700 were returned. The Minister of State came into this role full of bluster and guff that he was going to achieve things, but he has not delivered. These vacant homes are still lying idle. These vacant homes should be filled with young families and people instead of lying idle right across the State. The Minister of State is nearly a year into the job and he is jumping from blunder to blunder, having torn apart the hopes and dreams of young families across the State.

With almost 9,000 vacant homes in Cork city, we could nearly clear the social housing waiting lists by getting young families and their children into these homes. Instead, we must tell these young families that their children will be teenagers before the family can have a home of their own. How is this acceptable?

Currently, these vacant houses are magnets for anti-social behaviour, dumping, vermin and gangs. They are an eyesore and can cause problems in their communities. Instead of dreaming about owning their own homes and fixing them up, what can people in the constituency I represent dream about under this Government? An affordable home costing €400,000. The Minister has promised houses priced between €160,000 and €250,000. He said that people should not pay more than 35% of their income on their mortgage. Somehow, somewhere along the line the Minister and the Minister of State seemed to realise where their priorities lay. These priorities did not lie with the ordinary people of Cork North Central who are locked out of the housing market.

I put the simple question to the Minister of State: does he want to solve the housing crisis? Yes or no? I do not believe that he does. If the Government wanted to solve the crisis, it would fund local authorities to have full-time vacant homes officers in place to deliver the 92,000 homes that are there, so families and people can get the homes they need.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.