Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise vacancy, which is probably the biggest sin of this Government in respect of the housing crisis. The Taoiseach has been asked why it takes an average of eight months for a public local authority to flip and re-let a vacant home while it takes three weeks for the private sector to do the same. That speaks to the enormous level of waste, bureaucracy and red tape that exists in the Government's approach to housing. Another such example is the vacant property refurbishment grant. In its first iteration, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, made the criteria so tight that to apply, one needed almost to be a homeless homeowner. It took a year for the Government to cop on that the criteria were not working. In its current iteration, 1,389 applications for the grant have been received since July with only 16 being paid. The Government keeps producing these grants and schemes, etc., but is making them so ridiculously bureaucratic that it is nearly impossible for people to draw them down and as a result, the Government is making no real dent in the level of homelessness in the country. What is the Government going to do to make it practical for people to be able to draw down these grants and get homes for themselves?

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