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

These properties are vacant today. I hear what the Minister of State is saying but we need a driver.

I am not condemning the current vacant homes officers, but most of them were doing other jobs previously. That is the reality. They were not doing anything in this area.

I accept and acknowledge what the Minister of State said about housing, particularly in the context of his recent visit to Drogheda. The Minister, along with the local authority, has put in place the capacity to build 5,000 more homes in the town. This means that there will be an increase of 20,000 in the number of people living in Drogheda over the next ten years. At that point, it will be a city. It is wrong, as other people who are not here do, state that there is lack of progress. There has been significant progress, but more needs to be done.

Louth County Council has informed one of my constituents that it has been told that it cannot enter into any more long-term leases for houses. Some guy offered a property to the local authority on a long-term lease and it told him that the Department has been refusing any new requests since last year. If I could get an answer in respect of that matter, I would be grateful.

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