Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that reassurance. The difficulty is that across my constituency of Roscommon-Galway we have approximately 6,000 vacant homes, fewer than ten of which are available to rent today. Across the Northern and Western Regional Assembly area, there are 44,000 of these vacant properties. We want to see them back in use, bringing life back into rural communities. Will the Minister give an assurance that if there are barriers to the uptake of this scheme, they will be addressed? Take the repair and lease scheme, for example. In principle, it is a good scheme but the social housing test placed on it is acting as a barrier to local authorities refurbishing some of these vacant properties. Right across this country at the moment there is a social housing need in every village. There are Irish people or Ukrainians who will take those houses and yet we still have a social housing test in place for that scheme. That needs to be lifted.

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