Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Bruton is right to highlight the role that right-sizing or using empty bedrooms around the country can play in meeting current housing needs. There is a balance to be struck. We have to be careful not to introduce any measures whereby people feel they are being forced to sell a home that perhaps they have been in for half a century.

That said, there is merit in examining whether it is possible to have a co-ordinated national approach. In terms of social housing stock, where a family has grown up, the kids have left and there are a number of empty bedrooms, people in some local authority areas have been facilitated in right-sizing. The Deputy is referring to private housing stock, though. We will examine that issue with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien.

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