Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I refer the Taoiseach to an article published in theIrish Examiner in 2017 which estimated that in the region of 23,000 homes, that is, houses and apartments, were vacant in County Cork. I could bring the Taoiseach to many towns and villages in west Cork in my constituency which have a vacancy rate of more than 50% for many on-street houses. It is even worse again when it comes to those over-the-shop premises where a higher percentage are vacant.

In fairness to the Taoiseach, he said that the provision of housing is our No. 1 priority in government. Part of the answer is staring us right in the face. If we can bring on-street and over-the-shop vacant premises into the market, be it private or social housing, we will go part of the way to solving the housing crisis.

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