Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree these are comprehensive, continually changing and improving ways of getting people into homes they so badly need. The Minister of State mentioned vacant homes officers. I think we initially paid about €30,000 or €40,000 for local authorities to keep these people in employment. In fact, it turned out that most of them were doing nothing in respect of vacant homes. The grant to councils was increased to get more feedback and to get more commitment from them. Is there or will there be a quarterly report or a website report from each county council or housing authority giving information in numerical form regarding their targets, who they have contacted, what action has been taken and what issues have arisen? It is not acceptable that local authorities take funds from the State and from the Minister and the Minister of State's Department and sit on them and use them for other purposes, as was clearly the case.

The Minister of State mentioned CPOs. Louth County Council had a proactive plan for three years where it got more than 100 houses, which were vacant and derelict, back into commission for an average cost, including legal costs, of under €200,000. I appreciate the Minister of State talking about a new national strategy in this regard. I hope he is. I ask him to give me an account of this.

One small issue with the Croí Cónaithe vacant property scheme as I understand it, and I hope I am reading this correctly - the Minister of State can correct me if I am wrong - is that a first-time buyer can buy and move into a property whereas an existing property owner would have to sell or vacate their previous home if they were going to refurbish a derelict property in the centre of a town. If this is the case, then it might be wiser to also allow such people, if they own and are refurbishing properties under this plan, to rent or lease them to the local authorities for five to ten years. There is already the repair and lease scheme. I have looked at this. People can get their money back over so many years. If this initiative is to encourage more vacant property owners to refurbish the flat over the shop, they will not live in it but the grant would help them initially because they do not have the capacity to borrow that money. This is an important debate. It is important to raise these points.

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