Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

I echo everything said by Deputy Hearne. Nothing causes more frustration for people in housing need than seeing council houses boarded up. It causes huge frustration for people when they look out and see a house across the way that has been boarded up for weeks and months while they are living in an overcrowded house. Intergenerational families are stuck living together while there are houses across my constituency in Cork that are boarded up. Across County Cork, 495 houses are boarded up. In Cork city, there are 345. Some 196 of those have been boarded up for more than 12 months. These houses have to be turned around more quickly to provide homes. The costs associated with this are also frustrating. In the past five years, Cork City Council spent €890,000 boarding up vacant council houses. The amount of money being wasted boarding up vacant houses is scandalous when people in our city are homeless. It is a disgrace. Every day they are boarded up, the cost goes up because there is a per day rate to board up houses. The Taoiseach came into the House a few weeks ago and said council houses should be turned around in about three weeks. In the place he lives, Cork City Council, it is 32 weeks - far from the target set of three weeks. Pressure needs to be put on local authorities and they need to be provided with the resources to turn them around. At a time when far too many people in my city are homeless and in need of homes, it is disgraceful that there are vacant houses.

On the bigger picture, we have seen a very slow increase in the overall number of social houses in the city. As Deputy Hearne said, the number of social and affordable homes needs to be massively increased. That is the only way this housing crisis will be solved. Older houses also need to be retrofitted. In 2023, Cork City Council retrofitted just 53 of its houses. At this rate, it will take Cork City Council 200 years to retrofit all of its homes. It is madness and it needs to change.

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