Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I am not sure if the Minister of State knows this, but he should. If someone is not telling him this, he should get into the Department tomorrow and ask the question. He talks about preventative maintenance. At the current rate of preventative maintenance, it will take 78 years to do the stock survey of all local authority housing. That is the figure the Government provided to me - 78 years - and he comes in here to answer the question saying this is what the Government has planned. There are people who are living in mouldy, damp houses with leaks in the roof and windows and front doors that are unfit. People have heating systems that are not up to standard and the Minister of State comes in here talking about preventative maintenance. The Department cannot even do the audit. If it cannot do the audit and does not have the information, how is it going to do the maintenance?

Does the Minister of State know how much was allocated for preventative maintenance? It was €67 per house for each local authority. Each local authority is to have €67 to calculate what preventative maintenance needs to be done. Does the Minister of State really think that is going to do the job? I am asking him a straight yes-no question. I am telling him it will not.

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