Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----rather than sending a list of all the houses to the Department and waiting for the decision to come back. The Minister is shaking his head but I know what I am talking about. Last weekend, I was in Mayfield and on one estate there were six boarded-up houses. I contacted the council on Monday morning to say what a disgrace it was. It is not just in Mayfield, but in The Glen, Knocknaheeny and Farranree. Throughout Cork city, council houses are boarded-up while there are 10,000 people looking for houses to get off the social housing list. The Government is leaving houses boarded-up.

I ask two things of the Minister and Ministers of State to sort this out. The first is that they let the councils do the work by paying them the money to do it because the Government has it capped and closed. It does not make sense. We have boarded-up houses. This has been happening for years. My last point is that houses come back to local authorities for a number of reasons, such as people dying, people moving and people buying houses. Cork City Council has 200 every year. The first thing the Government should do is give the council money for that 200 and then give it the rest of the money. In Cork right now, more than 400 houses are boarded up-----

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