Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

The Minister has heard from the speakers here tonight. This is absolutely bonkers. We are talking about dereliction and vacancy.

I am going to relate two very brief stories. I am lucky enough to be able to walk the dogs every Sunday morning and when I do I pass two beautiful, three-bedroom semi-detached homes that have been vacant for over 12 months. They are probably still good enough to be turnkey but they are lying idle now and are going to rot and it is going to cost thousands to repair them. Prior to being a TD, when I was on the council, my dad lived in a council house. When he died, three separate times over a nine-month period I raised the issue of the house. It was turnkey. A change to the lock on the front and back door and someone could walk in. We left the coffee table, the Sky box and so on so that whoever came in could just plant his telly there and would have free-to-air Sky. The house was pristine but the council spent €28,000 on it. It ripped the whole lot apart and it took nearly two years to bring that house back into service. It is disgusting when we have people coming into our offices every single day and in our clinics, crying because they do not have a home and yet they are walking past empty houses that are clearly pretty good, that people could actually move in to. I just cannot understand why the Government has tabled a countermotion. We come in here and we try to do the right thing but I find it so difficult and frustrating. How do we explain it to constituents when they are walking past an estate and see two perfect houses? One of the Deputies mentioned €67. One would not buy a lawn mower to cut the grass for that. I appeal to the Minister to withdraw his amendment and support our motion tonight.

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