Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish the three Ministers well in their new portfolios.

In our Private Members’ business of a week ago, I described what is happening with housing as an emergency. Indeed, the Housing Commission report calls for a radical reset of housing policy in Ireland. While every possible solution should be investigated, my party and I are of the opinion that the solutions should and must be led by the Government by way of identifying ways of cutting delivery times, dealing with the slow turnaround of social homes, which I mentioned on the last occasion, and tackling dereliction, not just in some towns but in every town, city and village in the country.

The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, will be very familiar with my thoughts on Croí Cónaithe. We discussed it in the Seanad over a long period. The vacant homes grant system is good. I listened to the Minister’s contribution, in which he referred to 1,400 homes that have come through under the initiative. However, I am dealing with five cases in which people simply cannot afford the outlay of €50,000 for the Croí Cónaithe grant. Those people could move in, thereby taking themselves off the Kildare County Council homelessness list, if they had the €50,000. There has been some commentary on staged payments. I ask the Minister to flesh out a little how it may work for the people concerned. The initiative will make a difference but no builder in the areas I am dealing with will start unless they see some money upfront. That is causing a huge problem for many, who see the grant as a way out of homelessness and of affording their own family home. Statistics indicate there are 160,000 derelict homes in one state or another in the country.

My colleague mentioned the tenant in situ scheme. There have been 140 approvals in County Kildare, that is, 140 families saved from homelessness, but last November there was a diktat from the Government stating that since the council’s target has been achieved, it would get no more money. Unfortunately, I had to deal with the fallout of that over the Christmas period. People were saying their landlord contacted them stating the council was no longer going ahead with buying the family home for them. As my colleague has done, I ask the Minister to approve funding for our local authorities. In Kildare, where I am from, several landlords are waiting on news as to whether the tenant in situ scheme will continue. Those facing homelessness need the scheme. I ask the Government to come back to us as quickly as possible with its plans for the tenant in situ scheme.

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