Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the students in the Gallery, who are politics students from High School, Rathgar in my own constituency. They are very welcome.

I want to return to the issue of housing, the civil rights issue of our generation and most particularly of the generation of the students in the Gallery who are with us today. One key way to increase the number of homes available, that are so badly needed across our communities, is to ensure that we have a really positive proactive programme to turn vacant housing into homes. I raised the issue with the Tánaiste last week and he was somewhat dismissive, if he does not mind me saying. He told me to get onto my local authority. In the meantime, I have raised it with the Taoiseach. He acknowledged this is a national issue. Indeed, in The Irish Mirrorthis week we saw an investigative report showing that 250 HSE-owned properties are lying idle and vacant at a time when the housing disaster is ravaging our communities. Today, we in Labour will be launching our alternative budget. We will be including plans for an emergency empty homes fund to crack down on the appalling blight of vacancy and dereliction and bring homes back into use.

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