Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I accept that town centre first is a good model. The problem is that only 26 town centres were done in the first three years, between 2021 and 2024, and another 26 have been passed for 2024 and the next three years, as I learned from the answer I got to a parliamentary question. The town centre first policy is a good policy, but it will take 90 years to implement because there are over 800 towns in the State and we are only doing 26 every three years. That is crazy. The Government has a project that is good in principle but it is not funding it and not rolling it out at the level needed to target vacancy and dereliction in town centres.

The Minister of State spoke about one vacant homes officer in every local authority. That is a joke. We put pressure on the previous Government to get that one vacant homes officer. What we are looking for is a vacant homes team in each local authority to tackle vacancy and dereliction. I will be honest. We got a response here that sounds great and suggests that there is loads going on. I invite the Minister of State to walk the streets of Dublin with me, and I will also bring him to my home city of Cork, where I will walk him around and show him the dereliction and vacancy. He can list out all the projects but the facts are that houses and buildings are being left to rot in the middle of communities, when we have people who cannot rent or buy and others who are in emergency accommodation.

I will say one thing to anyone who is watching or listening. This Saturday at 2.30 p.m. on Grand Parade in Cork city, we are holding a Raise the Roof rally with unions, other left-wing political parties and student unions. I ask anyone who is listening, if they are sick and tired and fed up seeing good buildings left to rot while people have no homes, to come out on Saturday to support Raise the Roof.

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