Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Limerick council has done a very good job when it can, when it has the money. The process is cumbersome. They have to through bundles; they cannot just do one but have to do a couple. It takes quite a while to come back. Many of the houses that are boarded up have only minor works to be done. While waiting for authorisation from the Department, they end up being boarded up, which costs €3,000 to €4,000. Nobody wants to live next to a house that is boarded up. It is not fair when there is family coming to visit. The estate does not look great. The issue here is making the process simpler and funding the councils to be able to deliver. For instance, in Limerick there are always 200 vacant houses. When we get 20 done, 20 more come onstream. There is no plan to address this, to get it back to zero and start again. That is what we need to do. We need to change the system. It is low-hanging fruit, as the Minister of State said. This is the fastest way to deliver social housing and people are in need of those properties.

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