Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

As the Minister said, there is a significant difference between some of the local authorities. He referred to counties Laois and Kerry, for example, between which there is a significant disparity. That is something we certainly have to delve into because how some local authorities can do it much faster than others needs to be examined to see how best practice can be applied across the local authority sector. The longer a house is vacant, the more disrepair it falls into and the more problematic it becomes. It is unsightly in an area and can result in antisocial behaviour. For a multitude of reasons we need to turn these properties around quickly, not least because we have a large number of people waiting for properties and allocations. It really is critically important. Non-essential work can wait, essential work needs to be done and we need to get the houses reoccupied. I appreciate many local authorities take the opportunity to do deep retrofits and so on, including energy retrofits, but these can be done at another time. We need to get the houses reoccupied. That has to be our highest priority.

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