Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank People Before Profit for tabling the motion and giving us an opportunity to talk about these very serious issues that are neglected in the housing programme. A week or so ago, Councillor Maura Healy-Rae tabled a motion in Kerry County Council asking how many vacant houses, voids, were in the county, and the number was 171.

I am glad the Minister is in the Chamber because I want to put this to him straight. The Government is boasting and blathering about the housing programme that it is responsible for. Perhaps it is doing it somewhere else, but it is not doing it in Kerry or for the people of Kerry. Perhaps Dublin is being looked after again. When a house becomes void in Kerry, the housing section is told it has to bring it back to a standard whereby it has to be deep-retrofitted and everything else that goes with it, and it costs €60,000 to €70,000, yet the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in Dublin will give only €11,000 towards the house.

The Minister can shake his head but I am saying it here and it is on the record of the House. If the house comes back into use after less than six years, the owner will get no bob at all. There are 171 such houses in Kerry, and if the Minister says he is doing something about the housing market, I am asking him now to give money and sort this out. Many of these houses have been void or vacant for years. I can name a lot of them.

I ask the Minister to raise the housing cap because it is not acceptable with the cost of living. Moreover, the family income supplement, where it is included in their income, should be disregarded and I ask the Minister to do that. Some single people and families have been on the list in Killarney and Kerry for 13 to 16 years. Will the Minister announce the repair grant scheme for vacant houses outside of towns and villages and give details of it?

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