David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Since 2018, €7.75 million has been made available to local authorities to pay for vacant housing officers. Most of these officers have other jobs as well and recently I believe only five were full time. Those officers had other roles too. How can they do the work if they are not doing it full time? When will these officers be full time and why are they not full time already? Cork County Council, for example, should have three full-time officers for each of the divisions in the county to do this work. They should be identifying homes, which can be seen on vacanthomes.ieanyway. They should be talking to owners, tapping them on the shoulder and seeing what is available. They should be putting in the requisition to purchase these houses and derelict sites so as to bring them back into use. Many small towns and villages are full of empty houses that could be made available if the will is there. These officers must be made full time straight away. We need more of them and they must deliver.

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