Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his answer but he did not answer any of the questions I asked. I have the circular from 8 March to hand. The councils are seriously worried and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, needs to listen to this. They do not have the staff to do this. They do not have clarity on what they are supposed to do and who they are supposed to look after.

I can go through it again. I have already asked my questions but I will ask them again because I want to read them into the record. Local councils cannot, nor should they be expected to, inspect 100% of RAS or HAP properties in a year. That is not going to happen. They only ever inspect a small portion of these. Many of these properties will be in a poor state of repair and need significant work. Will the Minister of State confirm that a refurbishment grant to tenants in situproperties be examined to allow for necessary works to take place? Will he clarify what funding will be available to local authorities which, at present, or not aware of what the funding may be? Local authorities have no funding to carry out these repairs, as the Minister of State knows well.

The second issue is that there is no policy on how to administer cost rentals for people who have notices to quit, where the tenant's income exceeds the threshold for social housing. This is causing huge distress and needs to be clarified.

I understand it is only for new-build cost-rentals, which do not exist.

The third question is who is going to administer the scheme. A house is not purchased in a day and there is a long process that will take up many working hours of council staff who are already under huge pressure. What flexibility have councils to acquire additional staff to cope with this heavy workload? A failure to provide additional funding and staff simply means the scheme will not work, in particular if existing staff have to administer the scheme. They are telling me that all of their housing projects, including new builds, will be affected and delayed, meaning other targets and plans will be missed.

In regard to this scheme, if councils have identified suitable properties, can they approach a landlord with regard to a purchase prior to a formal notice to quit? We have known for a long time there are notices to quit in place. As the Minister of State knows, press conferences and announcements mean nothing. A robust circular with clarity, backed up by funding, is necessary to ensure these 1,500 houses can be secured by local authorities. Will the Minister redraft the circular and resend it to all of the local authorities to address the issues I have raised so the plan, unlike many of the other Government housing plans, might actually work.

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