Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that: — there are at least 2,656 vacant council homes, excluding Approved Housing Bodies (AHB) homes, across the State, including 776 homes vacant longer than 12 months;

— the National Oversight and Audit Commission Performance Indicator Report 2023, found that the average reletting time was above 33 weeks and cost, on average, €28,347.05;

— this reletting cost represents a 49 per cent increase on costs when compared to 2019;

— central Government have only provided €11,000 per home in 2025, and have only funded the return of 1,900 homes this year;

— the periodic opening of the Voids Programme, and the restriction on local authorities claiming reimbursement, leaves public homes vacant for months even when only minor works are needed;

— over 250,000 maintenance requests were made for local authority owned homes in 2024;

— local authorities have only budgeted on average €347.45 per unit for planned or proactive maintenance; and

— central Government has only provided €67.23 per unit for stock surveys and planned maintenance in 2025, resulting in only €10.1 million this year; further notes that: — these empty homes are an insult to those impacted by the housing crisis, and have a negative impact on the surrounding community;

— the housing maintenance direct labour workforce in local authorities was slashed during austerity, and has never returned to its necessary strength; and

— failure to properly fund the maintenance of homes leaves people living in unsuitable and unsafe conditions, while also increasing the repairs needed to relet homes; and agrees that the Government must: — create a dedicated Department of Housing, with an annual multi-million euro maintenance fund starting in Budget 2026, to allow local authorities recoup the costs of improving and upgrading existing stock, including vacant council homes;

— remove the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage cap on the amount of money that can be recouped by local authorities when bringing vacant council homes back into use;

— ensure that a standard average turnaround time of 12 weeks is met by all local authorities for bringing vacant council homes back into use, including refurbishment works, allocation and tenanting;

— ensure the maximum use of council employed direct labour, for the refurbishment of vacant council homes being relet and that public procurement rules are applied with flexibility to ensure no delays in cases where private contractors are being used for refurbishment works;

— give local authorities the maximum level of delegated sanctions, to proceed with refurbishment works to bring vacant homes back into use without the need for Department approval, and to allow this process to happen year-round;

— address the delays in securing Garda clearance through better coordination between the Gardaí, councils, AHBs and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage;

— address the delays in local authorities providing nominations to AHB social housing schemes through agreement of a protocol between the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the City and County Management Association and the Irish Council for Social Housing; and

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, must publish a real time report every six months, listing the number of vacant homes in each local authority area and the average length of time these properties are vacant, to track progress in addressing council home vacancy.

In April I submitted a freedom of information request to every single local authority in this State. Last night, I received the latest response, from the 29th local authority to respond to me. The most recent figures show there are now 834 council houses boarded up for longer than a year. The Minister will hear Deputy Daly talk about how in County Kerry houses are boarded up for ten years, Deputy Quinlivan address how in County Limerick there are 220 such homes and Deputies from counties Donegal, Dublin, Wexford and Louth discuss how their communities are crying out for houses. The Minister will also hear solutions. This is a simple solution. It will not solve the housing crisis but for hundreds if not thousands of families it will make a real difference. The families who need these empty homes are in emergency accommodation, are sharing houses between three generations, or are using box bedrooms. The Minister's colleague, Deputy Séamus McGrath, recently told me that if Sinn Féin brought forward solutions, he would support them. I am hoping he and the Minister will vote in favour of this Bill tomorrow because it offers a solution.

We hear criticism all the time from Fianna Fáil but when we come to it with solutions, what does it do? It shoots us down. Why? This will make a real difference for thousands of families. Right now, today, thousands of boarded-up homes cannot be repaired. Does the Minister know why? It is because he and his Government closed the voids return programme, meaning that local authorities do not have the money to renovate those houses. If someone hands back the keys of their house today, it will be boarded up until next year when the Minister’s Department opens the programme again. Does that make sense? Those are the facts. The Minister should not shake his head; I have the facts. Twenty-nine local authorities have now said this about his Department. I am giving him the facts. Each local authority can get a maximum of €11,000 to retrofit a house when the average cost of a retrofit - local authorities have told me this via freedom of information - is more than €26,000. Councils do not have that extra €15,000. The Minister proposing an amendment to my motion is an insult. For the love of God, there are 2,000 families in emergency accommodation tonight and the Minister wants to clap himself and this Government on the back. Has he any shame? What about all the families looking for houses? What about all the children out there? I spoke with a family the other day about a house that has been empty for five years. The house has been retrofitted with brand new windows and insulated walls, but there is a major problem with the stairs and the local authority does not have the money to repair them. The Minister will not give it the money. The house has been idle for five years and that is down to the Minister.

We discussed a stock survey. In the past three years the Government has carried out a stock survey on 6,000 homes. At that pace, it will take the Government 78 years to complete the stock survey, yet the Minister is talking about the preventative maintenance programme his Department is rolling out. He is in cuckoo land. These are the figures. This is what the local authorities are telling me and yet the Minister claps himself on the back and says the Government is great. Does it have any shame? It is a fact that the Government is giving local authorities a maintenance budget of €67.23 for every local authority house.

The Government has given them €67. Will the Minister check those figures out? If I am right, will he support this Bill tomorrow?

There are thousands of vacant houses across the State. What is worse is the hundreds and thousands of families who have to pass them every day and the people who have to live next to them. There is so much I want to say about this. I know of a girl at the moment and herself and her 14-year-old daughter are in a bedroom sharing a bed. Her mam passed away recently. Her dad cannot grieve because his son is in the front room, and the daughter and the granddaughter are there in the other room.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister think of the families? I ask him to reconsider his motion and to support ours.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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There is nothing more disgraceful than knowing we have thousands of families and children homeless or in insecure accommodation while we have thousands of empty council homes around the country boarded up and left to rot. We constantly hear the Government saying that bringing vacant properties back into use is key to tackling the housing crisis and yet we have over 2,600 council houses boarded up across this State. We need these houses turned around and brought back into use for families and workers. There are people in these communities who have been languishing on housing lists for decades. Can we imagine how it feels for those people or those living in emergency accommodation to be walking by boarded council houses every day? In some cases, they are walking by for an entire year. It is insulting and it is not on. Leaving homes to rot is also causing other problems in our communities. We get antisocial behaviour. In my own constituency, you can actually see that some of these houses are used as a dumping site. We all understand that council properties need to be refurbished and it takes time. We all agree with that. However, there is no way it should take a year. The longer these houses are left sitting there, the more work that needs to be done on them to bring them back into use. The Minister needs to take the reins here. This would be an easy win for him. He should create a maintenance fund that councils can have access to, give the councils the authority to do the works without waiting on approval from the Department, and ensure the councils have directly employed housing maintenance teams that can do this work and also have the capacity to maintain these properties all year round. I ask the Minister to support this motion. It makes sense.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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It must be heartbreaking for those on the housing waiting lists to daily pass boarded up homes or the many derelict, abandoned or underutilised private homes on their way to bringing their kids to school, day in, day out and year in, year out. It is scandalous in a housing crisis - an emergency - that all homes connected to sewers, water and electricity do not have families in them. The laughter of children should be heard in all homes - public or private - rather than the echo of emptiness. I firmly believe in the "use it or lose it" concept. It breaks my heart to see flat complexes in my own estate which have been long promised regeneration that are limping along. The regeneration of St. Michael's estate was promised nearly 25 years ago and it is only now that the hoarding is going up. St. Teresa's Gardens was knocked down ten years ago, but again the hoarding has only gone up recently. It is time to act. It is time to ensure that a housing emergency is declared and that this Government is got rid of. That is why I support the Raise the Roof campaign and I support those who are going to be here next Tuesday at 6 o'clock in their rally to demand action is taken and money is properly spent.

Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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In the middle of a housing crisis, there are more than 2,600 houses boarded up across this State. Some 91 of them are in my own constituency of Clare and of those, 18 have been empty for more than 18 to 24 months. This is not down to a lack of work on the part of Clare County Council. It is being hampered by a lack of Government commitment, a lack of action and most of all a lack of funding. Can you imagine being homeless through no fault of your own and having to see perfectly good homes left to go to rack and ruin? These homes should have families living in them. It is a national disgrace that children are growing up in hotel rooms instead of these homes. We have had more than enough excuses, broken promises and missed housing targets. Media reports yesterday revealed that this year's targets will be missed by 10,000. How many missed targets is that? I am starting to lose count. My colleagues in this Chamber have been condemning the Government for its failings for years and receiving platitudes, promises and reassurances, none of which are coming true. Blaming local authorities or anyone else is just scapegoating and avoiding responsibility for the Government's failings. Along with previous governments, this Government is simply not providing enough funding to maintain homes for people on waiting lists and is not providing enough new builds to cope with the demand that is out there. It is not rocket science. It is an ongoing failure of the two main Government parties spanning years. In Clare, we have families in desperate need of housing and yet homes are left empty. We know these homes can attract antisocial behaviour and illegal dumping. This stands as a monument to the Government's failures. If the Government cared about the plight of children growing up in hotels or of families trying to cope in one room or in hostel rooms, it would be treating this as the emergency it deserves to be treated as. Young people are emigrating to try to find a better chance of life, make a decent start in life and raise a family in a home of their own. Students who cannot access accommodation are either not taking placements or are led down the road of insecure and unregulated digs. We will be joining the Irish Congress of Trade Unions at its Raise the Roof protest. In my case, that will be the Munster rally on 21 June at Grand Parade in Cork. These will be major demonstrations of people's anger and disappointment in this Government and they have my full support.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The snail's pace at which vacant council homes are being brought back into use is a disgrace and it tells a wider story about the Government's other failure in housing delivery. In communities right across the State we see the consequences of this every day in vacant homes gathering dust while families sit on waiting lists, dereliction, antisocial behaviour and the crassness of people walking past these houses knowing that they would provide lovely homes for their families while they languish on waiting lists and raise their children in their childhood bedrooms.

In Waterford, like other counties, we see projects held back and frustrated by a lack of resourcing for local authorities and crucially, if we are being honest, by a lack of political will from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Take the social housing development in An Sean Phobal that entered the Department's own fast-track process in 2021. It is now mid-2025 and nothing has happened. It still has not commenced. In Dungarvan, an affordable and cost rental housing scheme I proposed back in 2022 has received no approval from the Department yet and no green light. A recent parliamentary question to the Minister's Department has confirmed what I feared which is that those homes will not be ready until 2028 at the absolutely earliest. That is six years later and that is at the best rate of progress the Department can deliver. In Ardmore, a beautiful seaside village in County Waterford which is a victim of its attractiveness, young people are being priced out by short-term lets and holiday homes. Families are being priced out of this and the village is facing a demographic cliff edge because the Government will not pull the trigger and get affordable housing delivered there. I nGaeltacht na nDéise, the crisis is deeper. The community is facing an existential threat. It is not just about supply. It is about the survival of this unique language community. Young families cannot get a home, they cannot set up a place to live, they cannot build a home if they have the wherewithal to do it and the Government has not grasped the reality of that. We are still waiting for the treoirlínte pleanála Gaeltachta, the planning guidelines.

On affordable sites, local authority chief executives are telling us there just is not enough money there to make it feasible for a local authority to develop affordable serviced sites in rural communities. This would provide a space for young families to build a home in their own area when they cannot get planning permission on a site that may be available to them and cannot afford to purchase a site that would have planning permission. It is a litany of failure after failure. Into that context we have the scenes we saw earlier in this Chamber where the Taoiseach had not read the-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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-----press release issued by his own Government today and had to consult-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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You are in your other Deputy's time.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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-----the Minister across the Chamber in answering questions. The Minister and this Government need to do better.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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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.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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When speaking to people in Kerry and dealing with the housing officers in Kerry County Council who are swamped with a deluge of people who are suffering from notices to quit, long waiting lists, rents they cannot afford and being denied access to some of the various schemes, it is obvious that the answer is more social and affordable housing. However, in Kerry, there was no affordable housing scheme. Under the tenant in situ scheme there were three sales agreed but they have all been pulled from the most vulnerable of people who were waiting. Houses in Kerry have been boarded up for close to ten years, which is the worst in the country. A few years ago when the tenant purchase scheme was announced, the Government expected that conveyancing would go through within four months but that was never going to happen. There is only one other county, Wicklow, which has two houses empty for longer than seven years whereas in Kerry we have 18 houses empty for that long or more. Linked to that is the fact that Kerry has the longest average turnaround time for boarded-up houses, a staggering 65 weeks. A full 30% of boarded up houses in the entire State are in Kerry. What is going on there? This week we discovered that the OPW has 70 empty properties around the State, some of which have been empty since 1974, which is more than 50 years. It is difficult to deal with the OPW . It agreed to give a site for a playground, for example, in Dún Chaoin but three years later that still has not been completed. There is no management and nobody seems to be in charge. It is up to the Government to sort it out rather than blaming the hard working staff of Kerry County Council or the people who are waiting on the housing waiting lists.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I do not know how many times I have come in here and spoken about housing. It is almost a single transferable speech although previously I might have said that things were not getting better but now it is very obvious for anyone to see that things are getting a lot worse. I have no doubt that the Minister and his Government colleagues have the same types of cases as those coming to my constituency office and are meeting the same types of people on the street, people would previously have been able to rent or buy a house or find some other solution that suited but that does not exist at this point. I will not do what I have done over the last number of months which is go through the Daft.ie figures. They are absolutely ridiculous. Had the Government told people in Dundalk, Drogheda or anywhere else in this State that we would be talking about rents of €1,400, €1,600, €2,000 or €2500 and more, they would have been laughed out of the place but that is what the Government has delivered at this point.

In fairness to Deputy Gould, who tabled this motion, we are talking about 2,656 vacant council homes. We talk about the complex issue that is housing but this is not very complex. There are 2,656 vacant council houses, 776 of which have been vacant for longer than 12 months. That is a simple solution. The solution is there in front of the Government and it is about ensuring that the money is delivered and the capacity to deliver happens. Then we could have at least 776 families that should have already been housed being housed how. If we get our act together, 2,656 houses could be made available. We should not allow these delays, which create other problems.

It looks like renters are paying the price for the failures of Government. I do not see any solutions in the dismantling of the rent pressure zones. We could talk about rising homelessness, the homeless services that are under severe pressure-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you Deputy, your time is up.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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------and pushing back because they do not have the facilities and the tools but that would be a far longer conversation.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dail Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that:

— the Government aims to minimise the level of vacancy in every local authority area, and this is reflected in a decade of Exchequer investment in addressing long term vacancy, while acknowledging that there will always be a level of vacancy in the system, as tenancies end for various reasons and homes are prepared for reletting;

— significant progress has been made over the past 10 years to address long term vacant local authority homes, which has been supported by Government funding of over €360 million;

— funding was ramped up considerably in 2020 to particularly tackle legacy voids and begin the transition to planned maintenance;

— the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) has found that across the local Government sector, the level of vacant local authority homes is only 2.8 per cent, the lowest rate in many years, reflecting the success of Government's approach;

— there is no cap on the amount that can be spent per home, provided the maximum average of €11,000 is maintained across the works programme;

— in addition, local authorities can complete the suite of works under the Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP) in parallel, up to a maximum of €48,850 per unit, increasing the overall funding available per unit as compared to the pre-2020 position;

— local authority homes are in general wholly owned by local authorities, which are encouraged to ring-fence some of their own resources from housing rents and other sources to the maintenance and protection of these homes;

— the Voids Programme operates on the same basis as all other Exchequer funded programmes;

— the transition to a programme of planned maintenance began in 2022, and aims to provide a sustainable model of management and maintenance to proactively address the level of maintenance requests annually;

— the commencement of stock condition surveys funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which are supported by the very recent roll out of a dedicated Information and Communications Technology system which will capture stock condition data and provide for informed work programmes and strategic asset management across all 31 local authorities;

— the funding available in 2025 for planned maintenance is a 100 per cent increase on 2024, and it is expected to increase further over the coming years as the shift to planned maintenance continues; and

— local authorities determine their priority works programme based on the condition of their units and the available funding, and that stock surveys are key part of this decision-making at local level; further notes that: — addressing vacancy across the housing sector, both public and private, has been and remains a key priority of Government;

— providing good quality homes that meet the relevant standards in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 is another key priority, which the transition to planned maintenance seeks to support;

— the EERP for local authority homes aims to increase the energy efficiency of those homes, increasing comfort levels and reducing energy costs for tenants;

— staff issues, including the nature of employment in local authorities and requirements for Garda clearance where relevant are the operational responsibility of local authority chief executives;

— maximum flexibility in terms of delegated sanction is already in place, within the framework of the Public Spending Code;

— the allocation of social homes is a local authority function under section 10 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the Social Housing Allocation Regulations 2011 and requires several factors to be considered; and

— NOAC publishes a report on vacancy matters, including turnaround times, annually; and highlights that: — over 13,100 vacant local authority homes have been returned to active use since 2020, aided by Exchequer funding of over €189 million;

— since 2021, 9,092 homes were retrofitted under the new EERP;

— funding for the EERP has increased from €17.9 million in 2021 to almost €90 million in 2024, demonstrating the importance the Government places on this programme;

— over 2,350 stock surveys have been recorded on the new asset management system;

— dedicated teams are in place in both the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Local Government Management Agency to support this work; and

— the Programme for Government commits to a new Voids Programme, with an emphasis on shorter turnaround times, and that the transition to rolling planned maintenance will support this.".

The Government will make it clear that the concerns being raised are in fact being addressed through various stock improvement programmes run by the Department and the steps being taken to move from a response-based approach to a planned and strategic approach to the management and maintenance of the local authority social housing stock informed by stock condition surveys.

The Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that the level of vacant local authority housing stock is kept to the minimum possible at all times. Let me start by acknowledging the progress we have already made in addressing vacancy. Over the last decade, there has been sustained and significant Exchequer funding committed to improving the condition, availability and occupancy of local authority housing stock. Over the last ten years, over 25,600 formerly vacant units have been brought back into productive use supported by Exchequer funding of over €361 million. The financial support from central government, channelled through voids funding, has allowed local authorities to target long-term vacant units and carry out essential works. Without this targeted investment, many of these homes could have remained idle, risking further deterioration and compounding the problem.

I also want to mention the work of the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, relating to the performance indicators in local authority housing stock. Its most recent findings indicate a welcome reduction in local authority housing vacancy rates to 2.8%, a notable and commendable achievement. To put this in perspective, a vacancy rate of under 3% in a housing system as large and diverse as the local government sector reflects both the commitment and effectiveness of our local authorities. That said, this figure must not be seen as a conclusion, but as a milestone. We are making progress and we want to continue to strengthen planned maintenance regimes, and to build even greater capacity at the local level.

The Department undertook a review of the issue last year which identified some 1,900 homes that could have been put forward by the sector for inclusion in the Department’s voids programme. This is because the issue of vacancy is a continuous process, with tenancy surrender and the re-letting of homes ongoing throughout the year. It is also of note that some homes currently vacant are not voids, but vacant as a result of them being new turnkeys or second-hand acquisitions awaiting letting, currently under repair or earmarked for demolition in areas of major regeneration. The Department has supported the remediation of these 1,900 units this year and will provide maximum flexibility for any additional units that become vacant throughout the year.

Equally important is the move we are making from a reactive model of maintenance to a planned and preventative one. This transition to planned maintenance is critical. It ensures that local authority housing stock remains in good condition, reduces the incidence of unplanned vacancy and is more cost-effective in the long run. Rolling out planned maintenance programmes means we can identify issues early, respond systematically and protect the State-owned housing assets. It also improves tenant satisfaction, strengthens trust and reduces disruption. To that end, it should be noted that nearly €200 million per annum of Exchequer funding is being provided to local authorities for improvement works on the local authority housing stock. This funding is being provided under the following programmes: planned maintenance or voids programme, the energy efficiency retrofit programme, the regeneration programme and the disabled persons grants programme. As we look forward, the key to improving vacancy levels lies in robust stock condition surveys and the continued expansion of rolling planned maintenance programmes. Stock surveys provide the foundational data local authorities need to make smart, strategic decisions about their assets. These surveys allow local authorities to profile their stock, prioritise interventions and plan capital works effectively. With this knowledge in hand, local authorities can budget effectively, avoid costly emergency repairs and extend the life of their properties.

The ICT solution has been implemented nationally to manage the housing asset and the planned maintenance programme. All 31 local authorities have been on-boarded. The ICT solution provides the ability to carry out and gather the data on stock condition surveys, which will inform future work programmes. Investing in planned maintenance is not just a technical issue. It protects housing quality for existing tenants and helps to ensure every property remains a viable home into the future. It supports quick turnaround times by completing the works necessary to meet the rental standards at the time of vacancy, with all other works completed over the life cycle of the tenancy.

The reduction to 2.8% vacancy rate is not just a statistical achievement. It represents thousands of homes brought back into use, lives changed and communities strengthened. It is a sign our policies are working and colleagues in local authorities are rising to the challenge. There is still more to do and the demand for housing remains acute. Every vacant unit must be viewed as an opportunity to meet housing needs and reinforce our commitment to social housing delivery. The Department will continue to drive improvements and change in this area. We are working with stakeholders in local government to ensure every home counts, vacancy is minimised and maintenance is planned.

As I said, the Government has provided funding for remediation of 1,900 void units this year and will provide flexibility in respect of any additional funding that becomes available throughout the year. If units become vacant above that figure, local authorities are advised to apply to the Department for funding. The survey carried out by the Department last year came up with a figure of 1,900.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I did one last month and the figure is 2,700.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputy Gould can address that in his closing contribution.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The message must go out loud and clear to local authorities that they should come forward with those additional voids and the Department will look at providing funding.

I thank all Deputies who contributed thus far to the debate on this motion. I commend the amendment to the House.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State has some neck to move that amendment. I thank Deputy Gould for bringing forward the motion and for all his work on this issue.

There are 126 boarded-up homes in Fingal County Council's area. That amounts to 500 men, women and children who could be housed. Can the Minister of State imagine what it must be like for people to walk past those houses when they are living in overcrowded and unsuitable accommodation that absolutely interferes with their ability to live a decent life? They walk down the road and see a boarded-up house. The Minister of State's party colleague is clever enough not to have an office locally. Constituents cannot find her because she is hiding from his housing crisis. I see it because they come to my constituency clinic and ask me a question: "Why is there a boarded-up house down the road from me when I am stuck in my mother's back bedroom and my kids are all forced to share the same room?" What do I say? I tell them it is Government policy because that is what it is.

The responses to the freedom of information requests by Deputy Gould's office make an absolute lie out of the Minister of State's weaselly words this evening. The Deputy has put the facts on the record. He has offered a solution, which is what my constituents want. How dare the Minister of State come in here and pat himself on the back. He said rolling out planned maintenance programmes means issues can be identified early on and there can be a systematic response. Will he go away out of that? There as twice as many applications for housing maintenance as there are local authority dwellings in my constituency. The Government is not maintaining the housing stock, which is being left to rot. When people hand back the keys, it is far too expensive to remedy because the Government is not funding the local authority to bring those homes back into use. We have a housing crisis because of Government policy. That is the only reason.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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There is general agreement that it is taking far too long for vacant houses to come back into service. Properties may lie idle for months or years. There are some in South Dublin County Council that are idle more than a year and others that have been vacant for years. I know of one building suitable for housing in Rossfield that has been lying idle for more than 20 years. In Mac Uilliam, two apartment blocks are idle, with a row ongoing between the council and the Housing Agency. Such properties are an eyesore.

Deputy O'Reilly referred to the challenges families face. People come to my office and ask whether they can take on a vacant house and do it up themselves. I have to tell them it does not work like that. People just do not get why these properties are lying idle. The main point we are trying to make in this debate is that resources should be put in to ensure they are not left idle. We need to speed up the process. South Dublin County Council has less than half the maintenance budget per unit of Dublin City Council. Will the Minister of State explain that? I do not understand it. The same types of properties get different funding depending on whether they are in south Dublin or Dublin city.

We need a different approach. People need to look at the current situation and see how it can be resolved. It has been going on for years. We have been told for years it will be tackled but people are not seeing it happening. When they go around their own estates, they see vacant properties with dumped rubbish that attracts vermin. It is time for a new approach and that is what we are proposing in this motion. It is incumbent on the Minister of State to agree to it.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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I was going to start by saying there is nothing more insulting to families languishing on the housing list than the sight of an empty house. The Minister of State found a new insult when he stood up and said his policies are working. I tip my hat to him for having more faces than Clerys clock when it comes to the housing crisis. Every single one of those boarded-up houses is a constant reminder of the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on housing. If they cared about families and children growing up in bed and breakfast accommodation, those houses would not be empty and the Minister of State would be moving heaven and earth to get people on housing lists into them.

In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, there are 93 such properties. Every local authority has boarded-up housing because the Government simply refuses to fund them sufficiently to maintain the properties and return them to use. I have spoken to families who are sleeping in cars or living in emergency bed and breakfast accommodation or overcrowded box rooms and sitting rooms while 93 council houses are boarded up and rotting behind padlocks. I firmly believe the homeless figure is underestimated. I know of people who have presented as homeless and been refused assistance. I know families with young children who presented as homeless and were not only refused assistance but were threatened with referrals to Tusla. That is absolutely scandalous and it needs to stop.

What is happening is beyond shameful. It shows up the Government for what it truly is. It will pass the blame to anybody rather than taking responsibility for its failures. When did the Minister of State's moral compass do a 180° turn and enable him to decide this was good enough? When did he make the decision that this was good enough for the families languishing on council housing lists?

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State and I both come from the Limerick City constituency. Before I came to the Chamber, I listened in my office to what he said. I was surprised. As he knows, we officially have 220 boarded-up council houses, of which 62, or 28%, have been boarded up for more than a year. He knows that because he has seen it. Across the city, Ballynanty, Kileely, Thomondgate, Moyross and Southill all have boarded-up houses. Those 220 homes should have families living in them. They are lying empty while children grow up in hotel rooms without access to play areas or, in many cases, a desk at which to do their homework.

I raised in this House previously the situation of a woman who is in emergency accommodation with her family. She can see the estate she comes from, and would love to live in again, through the window of the hotel. There are two houses on the street she grew up on that have been boarded up for three years. I ask the Minister of State not to tell us his policy is working. He is aware of the houses I mentioned.

Local authorities such as Limerick City Council should be funded to do their job.

Instead their efforts are met with red tape and a lot of underfunding, leaving these homes vacant, often for years. Funding of €11,000 per home is far short of what is needed to ensure these homes are safe and welcoming for new tenants and that is the problem. The more than 2,656 vacant council houses across the State must be ready for occupation.

The motion calls for an average turnaround time of 12 weeks to be met by every local authority. Crucially, local authorities must be given leeway to proceed with refurbishments without the need for housing Department approval on every single house. This should occur all year round and there should be no blockages on that. We need a dedicated annual maintenance fund to allow local authorities to recoup the cost of upgrading existing stock, including vacant homes. We should also allow councils to plan for when people are moving out of a house so someone can move in pretty soon afterwards instead of three, four or five years later.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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We just had statements on the report of the Housing Commission. We hear all sorts of arguments about how this is complicated, we need to do this and how there are multiple factors at play. We are talking about 2,500 apartments and houses that the State already owns. They are there. They are empty. Of all the low-hanging fruit in terms of the housing crisis, surely the 2,500 houses and flats the State already owns should be first and foremost. Other people have given examples of constituents living in overcrowded accommodation with three generations under one roof, many of them in seriously overcrowded accommodation, people sleeping on couches and people living in poor-quality rental accommodation and poor-quality local authority accommodation. The Minister of State spoke about planned maintenance. There are dozens of council engineers listening in who are laughing and thinking, "Chance would be a fine thing to get planned maintenance". Forget about it. It is just not happening. My constituents are walking past houses every day - two or three very often on streets congregated together in places like Mahon, Ballyphehane, Togher and Greenmount. There are 99 properties in Cork city that have been idle for more than two years. It is a dagger to their heart to walk past these houses. These people have been on the housing list for nine or ten years or might not even have qualified for social housing. They are living in desperate housing conditions and are walking past these idle units. It is a disgrace.

My next comment is for the Minister of State to bring back to his officials. Councils have to go cap in hand to the Department. The message from Ministers seems to be, "Look, spend the money and it'll be sorted afterwards". Look at what happened with the tenant in situ scheme. Is this not a fine lesson for councils? If they spend the money and the Department decides to change its mind later on, the ladder will be kicked out from under them. That is the lesson.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le Sinn Féin as ucht an rúin seo a thabhairt faoi bhráid na Dála anocht. The Labour Party has long campaigned against the scourge of vacancy and dereliction in our communities. Vacant local authority homes are the low-hanging fruit of the housing crisis and constitute State-sponsored dereliction. The undisputed fact is that local authorities do not receive adequate funding from the Department to deal with this. They get on average €11,000 per unit when it costs on average €48,000 to bring a vacant council home back into use. Construction inflation has increased by 114% since 2014. In Limerick, a city represented by the Minister of State and me, there are always more than 200 vacant local authority homes.

I wrote to the Minister last week to support a detailed and costed business case put forward by Limerick City and County Council for additional voids funding following a special meeting of the council and signed by all councillors, including those from Fine Gael. There are 113 homes awaiting minor refurbishment, which cannot be done for €11,000. There are 115 units assigned to the housing maintenance team of the council awaiting minor repairs. Of these, 87 are eligible for €11,000 in voids funding and 28 are being funded entirely through the council's revenue budget. The current funding deficit stands at €1.4 million. There is a forecast deficit of €5 million to refurbish 105 units, which leaves a total deficit of €6.5 million. I am asking the Minister of State both as a line Minister in the Department and a fellow TD for Limerick city to try to engage practically with the local authority to plug this gap. I know he is a practical person who is well able to get things done. All of us can work together to see whether, at the very least, we can plug some of that deficit and get some movement on this. Vacant homes are an eyesore. They are often a magnet for antisocial behaviour, draw vermin and rubbish and are desperately unfair to other residents living in a community.

The mechanism by which the voids scheme operates is flawed, with local authorities required to bundle vacant homes together, which often takes months, causing them to be welded up at considerable cost to the taxpayer and left to rot for months and years until they are refurbished. In Limerick, we are literally operating on what is effectively a one-in one-out model. It makes no sense. The Minister of State knows that. I was very dismayed when, in response to my party leader during Leaders' Questions a few weeks ago, the Taoiseach said there is a culture of dependency in local authorities. This is ridiculous. He was either being disingenuous or he is out of touch. There are council homes in parts of Limerick that have been vacant for up to three or four years. A total of 3,500 local authority homes become vacant every year. As we all know, councils are legally obligated to fit them out to a certain standard under the standard for rented housing regulations, which were established in 2019, so it is a bit more complicated than just giving them a lick of paint as the Taoiseach tried to misrepresent a couple of weeks ago. It takes over a year to refurbish and re-let these homes in Limerick. It is important to note that our local authority has been very proactive in funding some of the cost of the refurbishment of these homes. As we both know, in 2015, Limerick City and County Council approved a loan to Limerick 2030 to purchase and develop the old Dell factory site into a film studio. Following the sale of the studio, when Limerick 2030 repaid the loan to the council, the council repurposed this to fund the refurbishment of vacant council homes. The problem is that the money is effectively gone and, outside the €11,000 voids funding, the only source is the local authority's own resources. The local authority does not have the financial means to address the shortfall in funding, which means it cannot meet the targets set by the Department. It is important to note that the targets set by the Department do not call for the elimination of all voids, which they should do. These things should not exist. We are in a housing emergency. As others have said, they are literally the low-hanging fruit. Every day, I hear somebody in this House talk about vacant council homes and I feel like it is Groundhog Day because we are collectively saying the same thing week in and week out, year in and year out and nothing changes. As councils are required to bring vacant homes up to a standard, this compels local authorities in some cases to carry out significant work in order to re-let the property. We might be able to look at this to bring about a bit more flexibility to allow the local authorities to carry out some of the necessary work with the tenant in situ.

In failing to adequately fund local authorities to deal with voids, the Government is yet again failing to meet its own objectives under Housing for All. Objective 20 of Housing for All places a requirement on local authorities to make more efficient use of existing housing stock. If the Government is serious about taking radical action to solve the housing crisis, I urge it to go at this with all the armoury and resources of the State. We need urgent action to tackle dereliction and bring vacant homes back into use. I know that as part of the programme for Government, consideration is being given to the introduction of a new voids programme with a view to improving turnaround times for vacant social homes, which can vary wildly, from a couple of weeks in County Laois to the bones of a year in other places like Limerick. We need much more consistency in respect of the turnaround.

In this housing emergency, the Government must bring forward this new void scheme immediately. The first thing it should do is look to increase the funding available to councils to do this. I urge the Minister of State to speak to departmental officials regarding the specific ask in the letter that went from Limerick City and County Council on that funding deficit. There is scope for increased funding to be allocated to the council. In fairness, when the council has got funding, it has been good at spending and utilising it properly to bring homes back into use.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion today on voids in council housing. I have worked for many years in the area of public and council housing. One of the key issues is that local authorities, historically, for the past 30 or 40 years, have been not just undermined but effectively decommissioned in their role in housing. I remember this clearly from when I worked in council housing in Dublin for many years. I worked as a regeneration worker in social housing flats on issues of voids and tried to work with the council and communities to get social housing delivered properly. I remember speaking to many of the council officials during the latter years of the Celtic tiger and into the crash. During the Celtic tiger period, Government policy had decommissioned local authorities from their role in housing and the private market was seen as the way forward in delivering housing. We had the introduction and main focus of policy on Part V, the delivery of housing through private developers.

Of course, within all this, local authorities staff left and were not replaced. Unfortunately, within councils, we never saw a focus on, and delivery of, public housing as a public good. I contrast how councils view housing and their housing stock with, for example, our teachers and our education system or our nurses and doctors and our health system. We do not deliver public housing as a public good whereby we see this as our role. It is a council's role to ensure housing stock is up to the highest standard and is delivered as a public good and a human right in the same way we see that education and health must be held to certain standards. Of course, this is part of the problem. We do not have a system whereby local authorities are held to account.

While I have been and am critical of local authorities regarding attitudes to tenants and the failure to deal with issues, there is no getting away from the fundamental cause of the problem, which is that local authorities have not been given the resources or responsibility to treat and deliver public housing as a public good and human right. That is a fundamental missing aspect of our housing policies. In my own areas of Ballymun and Finglas, there is boarded-up social and council housing, which is so frustrating. Indeed, it is more than frustrating. It is deeply upsetting to people whose families are in homeless accommodation and who look at these boarded-up council flats while they are in homelessness, are unable to access social housing or have huge issues in overcrowded rental properties.

It is not acceptable that voids are left for months and in some cases years. There is no excuse for these properties to be left like that for so long. The issue of tenant in situ is linked to this. I spoke to Dublin City Council and have raised this in the Dáil before. The changes the Government has made to the tenant in situ scheme are resulting in local authorities having less funding to purchase tenant properties where tenants are at risk of homelessness. This is directly leading to homelessness, because local authorities are being told their acquisition budget is to go towards tenant in situ schemes and that they will not be able to invest in the same way with regard to remediating properties they are buying through tenant in situ. Where a local authority wants to prevent a person or family becoming homeless, it must decide whether it is taking it out of the maintenance budget, which again results in the issue of not addressing problems like voids, and it is forced to make decisions between taking people out of homelessness or trying to address voids and other issues. Local authorities should not be forced to make that decision. They should be able to retain the tenants in place in homes, to buy those homes and to renovate voids.

Another issue I want to raise relates to the Minister for housing pulling funding for social schemes that were due to go ahead in Dublin, including some in my constituency, in Ballymun. These public-private partnership projects, which I have huge problems with as a way of delivering housing, were due to deliver social housing in several areas but the Minister has now informed Dublin City Council that he is pulling the funding for them. It is absolutely shocking that the Minister is pulling funding from social housing projects that were ready to be delivered in some of the areas most in need of social housing in this country and in parts of Dublin, as I said, from Ballymun and other parts of the city. An emergency motion that was passed at Dublin City Council last night called on the Minister to reverse his decision to cut funding to these social housing programmes. It beggars belief that in the middle of a housing emergency, the Government would pull funding from projects about to deliver and build social and public housing.

Some of the councillors at the meeting last night asked whether there is an anti-public housing agenda within this Government. They asked why the Government was cutting funding from a scheme that had been all set up. Mary Callaghan, a local councillor of ours in Ballymun-Finglas, has done huge work in trying to progress social housing projects. She and other councillors described the full withdrawal of funding for these projects as a gut punch. I ask the Minister of State to raise this project with the Minister.

I was at the housing committee today and listened to the Housing Commission talk about its report and the huge work that went into it. It was shocking to hear members of the Housing Commission talk about the way they have been treated by the Department and the Minister for housing. Some said they have done a great deal of work for different public bodies and Departments down through the years and had never been treated so badly. They asked why the Housing Commission report was ignored by the previous Government and the current Government when the report specifically talks about local authorities, with a number of proposals. The report says we need to achieve the target of 20% of our housing stock being social or public housing.

What does this mean in terms of numbers? Currently, we would need to double the number of social housing units in this country. If we were to do that within ten years, as Professor Michelle Norris said today at the housing committee, it would mean delivering 18,000 social housing units every year for a decade to reach that 20% target. We are nowhere near delivering that number.

They make the case in this report that fundamental to solving the housing crisis is getting back to building social housing, and central to that is local authorities. The councils need the capacity. Policy needs to be shifted to allocate in a way that says clearly that local authorities are public housing providers. Just as our health system and our hospitals deliver public health, our local authorities need to deliver public housing. This means having the capacity to maintain it properly, invest in it and be able to build it in the first instance. Professor Norris made an interesting suggestion - it is in the Housing Commission report - involving the creation of local authority housing delivery organisations that would have the responsibility to deliver housing and manage it. That needs to be looked at.

Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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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.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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Having vacant homes in the middle of a housing crisis is a scandal, particularly when they are local authority houses. There are more than 2,700 vacant at the moment. A third have been vacant for more than a year. This is simply not on. Reletting times average more than eight months and are much more in many cases. The cost of preparing a home for reletting has increased in five years by almost €10,000 per unit. It is now more than €28,000. I want to give the Minister of State the message - if he looks around at vacant houses in Limerick, he will see it himself - that the longer a home is vacant, the more it deteriorates and it becomes subject to vandalism, and this causes problems. The quicker they are reletted, the cheaper it is to do it. One problem is over-reliance on private contractors. I understand that contractors have to be used in certain cases, but when we are totally reliant on them, it causes delays and drives up costs. Laois County Council has started using direct labour. It set up a dedicated reletting team of internal tradesmen and general workers. It is a small county with a small budget but it has a team doing that. It is speeding up delivery of relets. Reletting times are now three months and less. It has also proven to be more cost-effective. Out of a stock of 2,500 homes, fewer than 30 are empty at any given time. It would be better if it was even fewer than that. Eighty homes were relet last year in the county but only half received money from the Department. The average cost of relets in Laois is less than the State average. It works out at around €17,000 or €18,000 compared with the average across the State of more than €28,000. Relet grants from the Department are just €11,000. The Department only funded 40 of the 80 relets in Laois last year. That slows down reletting, along with the stop-start nature of the funding in how it is released by the Department. Boarded-up homes have a negative impact on local communities, not to mention the families desperately waiting for them. All local authorities should have a dedicated relet team made up of direct labour and use it where possible. It cannot be used all the time but it should be where possible. The Department and the Government cannot have a stop-start funding programme for relets. It has to be moving all the time. The Government and Department must provide a greater share of the cost of relets; €11,000 is not sufficient. We simply cannot have homes boarded up in the middle of a housing crisis. It is not on. This is no longer sustainable.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. I cannot tell you how many times I have spoken on this issue. I will come to the housing task force, the minutes of which the Minister was instrumental in getting us. When we talk about empty houses tonight, we are doing so against a background of the highest ever number of homeless people: 15,580, 4,475 of whom are children. This Government is taking pride in its policy, a jigsaw of pieces that adds more confusion, keeps house prices artificially high, and continues to treat housing as a commodity rather than a fundamental, basic unit of society - a home. You clap yourselves on the back with no overall picture. Sinn Féin has tabled a motion that is very practical. Honestly, if the Government had any sense, it would agree with it, even just for appearances' sake. It asks for the turnaround time for an empty house to be 12 weeks with some flexibility, for direct labour and for a report in real time every six months. I have no problem supporting it. I cannot understand how the Government has a problem with it.

Let us go back to this famous task force in Galway. It was announced in 2018 and set up in 2019. It is now six years later and the task force is still sitting. All that has changed is that there is a different chair. It was set up because there was a housing emergency in Galway directly related to the Government's policy because it failed to build houses. Deputy Hearne is perfectly right. I put it differently although I agree with him. There is an absolute prejudice inbuilt into this Government and every government in relation to public housing, which should be an essential part of the solution. When it abandoned that, it created an emergency that is getting worse and worse. The Housing Commission has asked for a radical reset of housing policy, but it has been utterly ignored by the Government except for the piecemeal tinkering with rent limits. The Housing Commission says that we need at a minimum 20% public housing, but this has been utterly ignored. I have looked at the most recently available minutes of the task force. The new chair, if I am not wrong, is a former general secretary or economist. He has expressed his utter frustration at what is going on in Galway city and county. I will quote him precisely. This is what he is telling us, six years after the task force was set up. The minutes state:

For the next meeting, the chair requested a short document providing a story of the maps to include the following: what is going on in the housing market in Galway both public and private?

I imagine that was the most basic question. It was the first question that should have been asked back in 2019. A report on that should have been produced. Here we are in 2025, and there are waiting lists on which some people are waiting, without exaggeration, up to 20 years. Most are waiting somewhere between eight and 15 years for a public house.

He tells the two managers what is needed, what is going on in the market, the use of local authority land for housing purposes, what lands are not being used, the location of the land acquisitions, what the main areas for private development are, where significant development is taking place, how many units are dependent on critical infrastructure, and so on. He also talks about funding and resources. This is 2025, and an emergency housing task force is finally beginning to ask questions when the crisis has become absolutely out of all proportion.

We can look at what has happened. We see the county and we see An Cheathrú Rua i gcroílár na Gaeltachta gan aon chóras séarachais. Níl aon chóras séarachais. Tá séarachais amh ag dul isteach san fharraige. Is constaic ollmhór í sin do chúrsaí tithíochta. Tá sé ráite go neamhbhalbh ag an gcomhairle contae nach féidir leo tuilleadh tithe a thógáil de bharr easpa infreastruchtúir. Níl seans dá laghad go mbeidh forbairt chothrom i gceist ó thaobh an chontae agus ó thaobh na cathrach. Tuigeann an tAire Stáit é sin. It is impossible to have balanced regional development and balanced city and county development if we do not have basic infrastructure. If we take one major example in Carraroe, there is no sewage treatment plant so no houses can be built. When we go to updates twice a year, finding out what the problems are is like pulling teeth without anaesthetic. We find absence of infrastructure is a problem.

Galway city is destined to grow as one of the five cities. I ask the Minister of State to come and look at what is happening in Galway, because there is not even a site for a treatment facility for east Galway. The plan is for Ardaun to have a population of 10,000. There is not a sign of a treatment plan for that. Then we have two pipes under the Corrib Estuary, down where I live in the Claddagh. A report was done on behalf of Uisce Éireann to say one of those pipes is in imminent danger of collapse. There is another more technical name for it. This is one of the major pipes carrying the sewage from east Galway out to the Mutton Island treatment plant and it is in imminent danger of collapse. The former Minister of State, Senator Noonan of the Green Party, was there and he took this seriously enough but it went nowhere. We were told it was a misunderstanding and the engineer had not said that and the engineer’s report had not said that, so I went back and looked and of course that is the position in Galway.

I am a proud Galwegian. I want it to grow sustainably. I want to see development but I want to see balanced regional development. I want to see a masterplan for the public lands because there has never been one. The harbour, which is public land held in trust for the people of Galway, is going ahead with its own plan for premium housing on public land to keep the price artificially high. Ceannt Station, with something like 14 ha in the city, has its own plan. There is no masterplan. When I was there I was told the council could not afford to produce a masterplan, so it would let the developers do that. Thus we have developer-led development. I say this openly at the risk of losing votes. We have developer-led development in Galway. We have absolutely no vision and no understanding of the challenges we face due to climate change and flooding.

We need transformative action for Galway. We need to take it as a pilot city, a city of the future with an integrated public transport system including light rail and at least 20% to 30% public housing so we can bring the price of houses down and treat housing as what it should be, namely, the most basic requirement if we are going to call ourselves a republic and a democracy. The Minister of State is nodding and he is a decent man whose heart is in the right place, but unfortunately government after government has made the situation worse. It is a neoliberal ideology that is completely out of control and is treating housing as something to be bought and sold with a huge profit as opposed to a basic requirement to allow people take part in society and not be looking at insecurity of tenure.

With this motion we are focusing on one aspect. At any given time in Galway the number of vacant houses is between 80 and 120. Some of them have been vacant for ten years and some for five years. Two beside my estate have been vacant for three and five years.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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We are not simply facing a housing shortage, but confronting a failure of governments, of planning, of priority and of moral seriousness. This motion shines a light on a scandal that should never have been allowed to become routine. There are 2,656 vacant council homes across the State. Nearly 800 of them have been empty for over a year while nearly 4,000 children sleep in tents on cold streets and the lucky ones sleep in emergency accommodation. The average letting time in a local authority is now 33 weeks for the turnaround of that property. The average cost of bringing that property into repair is €28,000 per unit. This has increased by 50% since 2019, yet central government provides just €11,000 per unit. That is a shortfall of €17,000. This is not policy, but dereliction that is expensive, bureaucratic and utterly inefficient.

Let us be candid in this House. This government policy is neither centre-right nor centre-left, but it is certainly the centre of chaos. It has no ideology beyond inertia, no vision beyond the next press release and no instinct for delivery. It reacts but it does not lead. It is entangled in the process, paralysed by indecision and blind to the urgency of this generation’s housing emergency.

However, let us not pretend those bringing forward this motion have all the answers. They have spent years shifting the blame from government to local authority and back again depending on which way the political wind is blowing. Some of their councillors have made spectacles of themselves online, in print and on social media by pointing the finger at the Minister today, at the council tomorrow, at the Department the next day and around and around again.

I will not, and this Parliament must not, allow local government to be the scapegoat in all of this. I place on record my admiration and respect for the staff of Cork City Council and Cork County Council who continue to serve with professionalism and resolve despite being expected to deliver with one hand tied behind their back by the departmental Scrooge. They are not failing, as some Sinn Féin TDs have said in the past. They are instead succeeding in spite of departmental procrastination.

We in this House must consider a broader truth. Ireland is ten years ahead of the population plan. We have already passed 5.3 million. This milestone was projected for 2035, not 2025. This growth is not a surprise. It comes with inward economic migrants and a sharp rise in refugee and asylum applications. According to the Department of justice there was a 290% jump between 2019 and 2024. The CSO projected 5.6 million by 2030. We are already nearly at that point. This type of demographic pressure demands clarity, a tough boldness and action. Instead we are getting delay, drift and dysfunction from this Government. Other countries and cities across the world face similar pressures, from Vancouver to Vienna. The difference is those countries are acting while we are hesitating. We are handing off responsibility to others. We are waiting until the problem becomes unmanageable and then we wring our hands in this House and we act surprised.

I congratulate my friends on this and agree wholeheartedly that we must have a permanent, ring-fenced refurbishment beginning with budget 2026. We must end the spending caps that cripple local authorities to deliver. We must have a national standard of a 12-week turnaround period for vacant homes to come into use. Direct labour terms and procurement rules must enable us and not obstruct the delivery. There must be full autonomy for local authorities, no more delays and waiting lists and departmental greenlighting to fix the door of a council house. There must be a public register of vacant homes updated twice yearly to ensure transparency and accountability.

These are not radical ideas by my friends; they are common sense ideas. It is what a competent and functioning Government would have already done. If in 2025 a Government cannot turn an empty house into a home in under 90 days, we must ask ourselves a question in this House. What exactly is it in office to do? What are we witnessing? What we are witnessing is not leadership. We are witnessing mismanagement, systemic, habitual and increasingly costly mistakes that are being presided over by a Minister with intellectual caution, a Minister run by a Department of administrators more interested in the optics than the outcomes. Ireland is at a drift. We deserve better. We need better and we need more than just empty slogans. We deserve a Government worthy of the challenges that this country faces.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 1:

To Insert the following after "rolling planned maintenance will support this":

"commits to:

— reducing the turnaround time for vacated local authority homes to new tenants from the current average of eight months, to a two month average turnaround time; and

— ensuring that local authorities be permitted to apply to the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant for the purpose of refurbishment of vacant council houses.".

This amendment seeks to bring vacant council property homes back within two months, as well as ensuring that local authorities can apply for, and avail of, the vacant property refurbishment grant. The housing failure has had a catastrophic impact on the citizens of this country. In just a few short years rents have doubled right across the country. In Claremorris, County Mayo, I recently spoke with a constituent whose rent between 2019 and today has more than doubled. Young people are emigrating at increasing rates, and last year at rates we have not seen since the recession. Bidding wars have become the norm. I ask for the Minister of State's attention briefly. There was a time when you would look at Daft and have an idea how much the cost of a house was. Now, you have to ring the auctioneer to see what price above the asking it is due to sell for. I was listening to what was said in the council chamber in Mayo County Council this week and a Government councillor said that homelessness in Mayo is now a new and almost commonplace phenomenon.

There is an elephant in the room with this debate. I have listened to hours of debate and with the odd exception all of the House is focused on one dimension of this equation. That is the supply side. However, the truth is that this housing crisis cannot be solved by addressing one side of this equation. It is important to note that the demand side must be addressed and managed as well. It is an incredible situation where we have had hours of debate today, and weeks of discussion on housing, and there is so little mention of the demand that is driving. It is a fact that this Government is failing to meet its modest targets. Meanwhile, the growth of the population and the demographic pressures are really quite significant. I was struck by a recent Savills report that stated the population growth to housing delivery is 4:1, which ultimately means that for every house built the population is rising by four. This is the worst in terms of western countries. In Britain, it is 2:1. In Australia, it is 1:9. The USA is 1:5 and Germany is almost 1:1. In Ireland, it is 1:4. In the past 12 months, 150,000 immigrants arrived in Ireland, while circa 30,000 citizens emigrated from the State. Ireland is experiencing one of the worst levels in the area of supply and population growth. We are taking a small step forward, but two steps back. It is important to be honest. We cannot solve a problem that we do not fully understand and that is the part of this equation that is being completely lost on this Government. It must be said that it has been utterly lost on this Government and on much of the Opposition.

I was struck by Dan O'Brien's research. He is a leading economist in the country and he outlined the figures with regard to work permits. I went back and looked at more data. Data from 2015 and 2016 shows we were issuing approximately 10,000 employment visas. Between 2022 and last year, we were issuing approximately 40,000 visas per year. I have no doubt that many immigrants are providing tremendous value to the economy and the labour market is particularly hot. However, we should recognise that the demand is making the housing situation worse, and I ask the Minister of State to engage with the Minister for trade to see if we can reduce these numbers of visas. Can we, for example, provide visas for the essential services of the economy like healthcare and construction but manage that system better? We certainly need to. The same trend exists with residency permits. I do not have time to go into full detail. There is an inevitability to this housing crisis. On the one hand, the Government has failed to address the issues and build houses in this State and address the obstacles and bottlenecks it has consistently presided over. On the other hand, it continues to mismanage the demand. I ask the Minister of State to work with the Minister for trade on this. I have the data here. The trends are here. They say pictures do not lie, but they are significant, and the demand has been rapid in recent years. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State would get back to me on those points.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I am widely supportive of the aims of the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion. We wish to do more to ensure that social housing stock is turned around and reallocated in a timely manner. I note in media reports over the weekend that Tiobraid Árann is one of the four biggest offenders in returning long-term voids. I acknowledge that large strides have been made by Tipperary County Council under Jonathan Cooney, and the engineering and other staff of the council, in addressing the issue in recent years, including bringing back more than 80 homes or voids in 2024 and 100 in 2023. There are two that supposedly have been empty for four years, which is totally unacceptable, but there were issues with planning which I understand are being resolved at present.

Another big issue relating to voids is the cost of bringing them back into use, especially when local authorities can only recoup up to €11,000 per house despite a recent NOAC finding stating that the costs of same are closer to €30,000 per house. I would say that is conservative, because we know the costs even of painting and decorating. We must look at that, because €11,000 is a paltry sum to give the county council. This is often a cost that councils are unable to sustain along with the availability of labour and delays with engaging contractors, so €11,000 is wholly inadequate to do that. We must also be mindful of other limitations on local authorities in turning around houses after a tenant leaves, passes away or vacates to attend a long-term nursing home for care. Many of these issues are sensitive and all of us here know that, including the Ceann Comhairle. It might take longer than normal to get back the keys and there are extenuating circumstances that will not allow this, so you have to be sensitive about that too. It is not just flicking a switch. What is required is an ongoing maintenance-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Time is up, Deputy.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I think there is only me and Deputy Nolan.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Two minutes, yes.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am here as well.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I have three minutes. I am fine.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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No-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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We are missing one.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Excuse me. Go ahead.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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What is required is an ongoing maintenance programme for all stock to ensure it is routinely kept up to a decent standard. No house should be in such poor condition when it becomes vacant that it takes several months to bring back. Usually, it is only after a house is vacated that it would be considered for an energy upgrade to thermal insulation and heating systems, or a new window set. I believe the council should be continuously assessing their houses. The rent collectors are gone from the job, but they were always on the ground and knew what was happening. They also reported back on the condition of the houses. We need to have regular inspections of rented houses.

Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I wish to bring my experience as a county councillor to the topic of vacant homes. I was until recently a member of Wicklow County Council. A number of years ago as the housing challenges became more acute, I proposed that every month councillors receive a total number of vacant houses, broken down by district. This could be discussed every month at our full council meeting. This happened. I also asked that the list be aged by how long the houses were vacant. The proposal was adopted by the council. My logic for introducing it was that if you want to manage something, you must first measure it. I ask that Members, rather than constantly focusing on being critical, come up with practical solutions. I call on all councils to implement what we did in Wicklow a number of years ago. Of course the lead time for reletting of vacant property should be shorter but remember that all relets are brought up to a high standard and many of the houses have not been refurbished in decades.

I see some false information being put into the public domain by politicians, in particular statements that funds given for refurbishment are of the order of €800 per house. That is actually the maintenance cost.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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No. The figure we mentioned was €11,000.

Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The average cost across the country is €28,000, as per the most recent NOAC report. There is a national spend of over €100 million. The Government provides €11,000 per house and not €800. The waiting times can clearly be improved. Some counties take an average of 60 weeks for a refurbishment while one takes only 13 weeks. However, there are a variety of reasons for delays, including delays with contractors, the time taken for full retrofits and tenant refusals of properties.

I reiterate that we need to monitor vacancies on a monthly basis at county level and use the reports we have used in Wicklow.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Local authorities need to do much more about our vacant council housing stock. We have houses vacant for one, five, ten, 15 or 20 years, or longer. Some of these properties are beyond repair. Others require substantial works. There are vacant rural cottages that were part of a farm and that family members wish to buy and have been trying to do so for many years. Where there is value for money, of course we should be doing up these properties and reallocating them to qualified housing applicants; where it is too costly to repair them, we need to sell them off as soon as possible and put the moneys raised back into replenishing the housing stock.

I would like to get the figures for the number of properties vacant for more than one year, five years, 15 years and 20 years in each local authority. What is the longest vacant local authority house in each local authority area? What number will be repaired? What number will be sold? What will happen to the remainder? There may be title issues, boundary issues, etc. Can we be told when the properties will be sold, repaired, etc? To address the housing crisis, we need to make radical decisions. We need to zone land in all our towns and villages. We need to zone lands for affordable, social and private housing. We also need to zone land for modular homes. We need to give our people a choice. We should make low-cost sites available to our citizens.

In that regard, we need somebody radical. I hope he will forgive me for saying it, but we may need somebody like Michael O'Leary to be given a free rein. This problem is sortable. I wish the Minister, Deputy Browne, well and will support him in any way I can. I know his heart is in the right place. We will get to the end of this crisis but it will take doors being knocked down, windows being opened, etc.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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I welcome the motion and the opportunity to once again place a spotlight on the extraordinary levels of vacant housing. The motion is pragmatic and I will support it. When I think of housing vacancy rates, I think of a man dying of thirst while a giant pool of water remains within his reach. There is a stupidity and recklessness to this issue that is mind-boggling. In the middle of a great housing crisis, we are sitting on thousands of empty homes. It is ludicrous beyond words.

I have raised the unacceptably high levels of vacancy and dereliction in many local authority areas, including my area of Offaly, for some time. A year ago, almost to the day, I called on the Government to commit to increased funding to tackle vacancy and dereliction rates in County Offaly. The response from the then Minister, Heather Humphreys, was more or less that everything was fine and the Government was doing all it could to tackle the issue - but here we are a year later, going around in circles. The former Minister spoke about the urban regeneration and development fund, the town centre first policy and the Our Rural Future vision for a thriving rural Ireland. The Government also spoke of measures being rolled out on building acquisition, measures which would support local authorities in purchasing vacant and derelict buildings. Yet only in the past fortnight the Taoiseach has spoken in this House about how slow he feels the turnaround process is for vacant social housing. It sounded to me like a blame game. Even if I accept some local authorities are better than others, the fact is many local authorities, including Offaly County Council, are understaffed. Reductions in staff numbers were made many years ago and they have never reached the same level since. We should be collaborating, working together and supporting our local authorities to tackle this issue.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Gould and Sinn Féin for tabling this very important motion. There is no shadow of a doubt that houses in the local authorities are taking too long to turn around. There was one house in Killarney I fought tooth and nail over. From the day it first came up here, it took over five years to get that house in Marian Terrace turned around. There was vermin and everything else gone into it.

I was shocked the other day to hear the Taoiseach say a house should only take four or five days to turn around. He is right that maybe that is what it should take, in some instances, like the two houses in Kilgarvan that people left a few months ago. What happened then? Some crew came along, took off the roof, took out the chimney and they are still at it, putting in an underground heat pump or whatever it is. The houses are riddled. Under my own nose in Kilgarvan village, that is what is going on. It is wasting money. I believe the two houses will cost more than €100,000 each to turn around. They are gone over now to another village in east Kerry and they went around to 18 houses to tell them they are fitting heat pumps. This is a waste of money when there are other houses to be turned around. It is wasting good money. One poor woman rang me and said "Danny, they're talking of taking out my little fireplace and taking down the chimney. That's all I have after all my years and I want my little fire." I have been on to Kerry County Council. This is wasting money, while other houses around the parish and around different parishes in Kerry are having no work done to them. That is ridiculous. It is taking 64 weeks to turn around a house in Kerry and the Taoiseach thinks it will only take five days.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Go raibh maith agat.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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He is ambitious but I do not think he will bring it down to that. He is a good man and he is trying his best but it will not happen if we are here until-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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You are in full flight. Go raibh maith agat. Anois, ar ais go dtí an Rialtas. Glaoim ar an Aire.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all Members for their contributions. I echo the comments made by the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and reassert this Government's commitment to tackling the challenges in the housing sector. I will highlight the steps being taken by the Government to minimise vacancy and to ensure strategic and informed programmes of planned maintenance work for local authority housing are implemented and support by stock condition data and the appropriate ICT asset management solution. The completion of the roll-out of the ICT solution to all 31 of our local authorities has occurred in the past few weeks and is an important step.

Furthermore, since 2014, Exchequer funding has been provided through my Department's voids programme to support local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-letting. This funding was initially introduced to tackle long-term vacant units and is now, in light of urgent housing needs, increasingly targeted at ensuring minimal turnaround and re-let times for local authority vacant stock. Vacant properties need to be refurnished and re-let as quickly as possible, with the emphasis only on those works that are necessary to ensure compliance with the housing regulations of 2019. Works that may be desirable but not necessary to meet those letting standards should not delay the re-let and can instead be carried out later under a planned maintenance programme. Prioritising such work on vacant units ahead of similar works required on homes occupied by tenants is not advised or supported by my Department because it is contrary to the principle of good stock management through regular planned maintenance.

I will be looking at the overall picture in respect of funding local authorities for voids management and planned maintenance, coupled with various other local authority stock improvement programmes by my Department. Since 2013 until the end of 2024, under the planned maintenance voids programme, the energy efficiency programme, including the midlands pilot, and the disabled persons grant scheme, local authorities have received just shy of €1 billion in Exchequer funding. That is substantial State support.

With specific reference to voids, however, it should be borne in mind that there is no upper cap on the amount that can be spent or recouped on an individual dwelling, provided the total amount averaged across all dwellings-----

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is the same thing

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----submitted by a local authority does not exclude €11,000. In addition, and where turnaround times are not impacted, local authorities can also complete the suite of works applicable to the energy efficiency retrofit programme on a vacant dwelling with additional funding up to a maximum of €48,850.

There is evidence to suggest, however, that while re-letting costs are higher, the turnaround times are longer. Pre-letting works being completed to the highest possible standard in order to future-proof these dwellings does not need to be carried out between tenancies. Such an approach causes unnecessary delays in re-let times and is inconsistent with Government policy on the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock. Additional funding was made available in 2020, which provided uncapped funding levels. This was supported again in 2021 with the non-standard voids programme. Further uncapped additional funding was made available to the sector in 2023 to finally tackle any remaining legacy vacant support for the transition to planned maintenance. There should be no long-term voids in this country after the substantial funding that was provided to get them back in place.

Deputy Gould gave the example of a house that was waiting for a retrofit for five years because it did not have a stairs. The idea that a Cabinet Minister needs to get involved with a local authority to put in a stairs because it is beyond the wit or ability of a local authority to do it in five years is, quite frankly, farcical.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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The authority did not have the money.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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It did not have the money to put in stairs.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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It did not have the money.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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It did not have the money to put in stairs. Is the Deputy having a laugh? This is the problem. The local authority should be putting in those stairs.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is having a laugh when he is blaming local authorities when he will not do his job.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy should think about what he is saying. These voids should not be there. The local authorities have the ability and wherewithal to resolve the issue.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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They are not getting the money.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Please, Deputy.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has in the past given them the money to do so. The funding available from my Department under the planned maintenance voids programme is available to support minimal turnaround times, with all local authorities moving to a position of aligning works with the criteria of the relevant regulations and meeting their legal obligations as a landlord. This will limit the impact of funding shortfalls, which must be absorbed from the local authorities' own resources. Given the significant Exchequer investment into the stock improvement programmes over recent years, particularly for voids, I now envisage that local authorities should be in a strong position to continue the transition to a strategic and informed planned maintenance approach to stock management and maintenance.

A Sinn Féin TD earlier gave the example of a house having been left in immaculate condition. What did the local authority do? It went in and gutted it. That is absolute madness.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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You are the Minister. Is he the Minister?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy comes in and blames the Government for allowing that to happen.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Please, Deputy.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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He was asking me a question.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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It is madness and should not be happening.

Of course, in line with local authorities' best practice and with regard to rental standards, whether a house is old or has a long-standing tenant in situ, it should be inspected and improvement works carried out at regular intervals to prevent excessive maintenance costs and delay when the property becomes vacant. To that end, my Department and colleagues across the local authority sector are working to transition from a largely reactive response and a void-based approach to stock management and maintenance to a planned maintenance approach. This will require the completion of stock condition surveys by all local authorities and the subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes in response. My Department will support these work programmes by ensuring that the funding available under the various stock improvement programmes is aligned with this approach.

In consecutive years, my Department has ring-fenced €5 million for planned maintenance under the planned maintenance of voids programme. This has been doubled to €10 million for 2025. I hope to increase it further in future years. This funding has supported the implementation of an ICT asset management system for the local authority sector, which, as I mentioned earlier, is now available, with all 31 local authorities on board. This investment is also available to provide a funding contribution for the completion of stock condition surveys while simultaneously funding planned maintenance works that arise from these surveys. This approach will also ensure that the properties are returned to productive use as quickly as possible while allowing more extensive works to be carried out on a cyclical basis.

From an asset management perspective, local authorities are moving to a position whereby properties are inspected and maintained at regular intervals.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is not true.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The move to the planned maintenance approach for stock management and maintenance is crucial in this regard to ensure that local authorities can maximise the funding available from relevant stock improvement programmes by only completing the measures applicable with the housing standards for rented housing regulations when a property becomes vacant. Providing cyclical maintenance over the life cycle of a tenancy will ensure houses can be re-let more quickly, deliver far better value for money and limit the exposure of the local authority to excessive costs and significant turnaround times when a property becomes vacant.

The motion from Sinn Féin tabled for this evening's debate does not fairly represent the efforts and progress the Government has made and is making. It makes the point that we need to create a dedicated Department of housing with annual multi-euro maintenance funding, starting in budget 2026, but this is already in place and is further supported by the housing delivery co-ordination office. Some €90 million is available for the energy efficiency retrofit programme, which is an increase of almost 40% since the programme was implemented in 2021. Some €50 million is available in 2025 for a regeneration programme. Some €31 million is available under the planned maintenance voids, with over €10 million of that funding ring-fenced. The disabled persons grant for local authority housing is receiving a budget of €25 million to support improvement works and additionality for existing local authority-owned dwellings in the form of adaptations and extensions, which allow people to live in their communities for as long as possible.

The motion refers to the failure to properly fund and maintain homes and the failure to remove the cap associated with the costs of remediation for vacant units. As explained, there is no cap-----

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is not true. That is not true.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----provided a maximum average is maintained across the local authority's programme.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Deputy, please allow the Minister to reply.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Given the legal responsibility on local authorities with regard to management and maintenance, they play an important role to ensure adequate budgetary provision for the purpose of housing repairs and cyclical maintenance from their rental income. The funding my Department provides is supplementary rather than available to fully replace local authorities' own self-funding.

Returning to the example Deputy Gould gave earlier, in five years the local authority could not find the wherewithal to put in stairs.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Government will not give the local authority the money.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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That is not a Government responsibility but a local authority responsibility.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The Deputy will have the chance to speak shortly.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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We will continue doing everything in our power to minimise turnaround times, as referenced in the programme for Government, with the proposed introduction of a new voids programme to support local authorities to ensure their homes comply with the relevant standards and to provide good comfort levels for their tenants and implement strategic programmes for planned maintenance informed by stock condition surveys. When these houses are made vacant, there are families who have just been living in them. How it can take months and years to put new families into those houses in incomprehensible. It should not be happening. As the Minister, I will ensure that local authorities do not indulge in these delays any more. If a family is moving out, a health and safety assessment and basic repairs should be carried out, but leaving houses vacant for months and years on end is not on the Government but on the local authority.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North-West, Sinn Fein)
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We are in a housing crisis. Over 2,700 vacant council properties are boarded up and lying vacant across the State. Of those, more than 800 have been vacant for over a year. It is estimated that Dublin alone accounts for 27% of such vacant properties. Dublin has a growing senior population and along with it an increase in the demand for senior citizen accommodation.

There are a number of senior citizen complexes in my constituency of Dublin North-West. I often take the time to visit these complexes to meet with residents and talk about their concerns. What strikes me most when I visit is the number of units that are lying idle. Many of these units are not necessarily boarded up, but they are lying idle and empty. I know there is a demand for such accommodation because I regularly get requests for help from people who wish to move into it through my constituency office in Finglas. Some of these units have been idle for two years or more. The reason there are a number of such vacant units is that refurbishment work on senior citizen accommodation was the responsibility of direct labour within the council, not private contractors, but this has changed in recent times. The council has cut back on the use of direct labour and is now relying more and more on private contractors. This has increased costs for the council, which means that not as many units can be refitted and refurbished as before. This has created a logjam in delivering such units, which would be delivered much quicker if direct labour were used instead of private contractors.

In a housing crisis, vacant council properties need to be turned around as fast as possible. With almost 60,000 people on the housing list throughout the country, not including 85,000 on HAP, RAS and rent supplement, every vacant property needs to be made available as a matter of urgency.

Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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We have a bit of contradiction in that there are so many people without homes, yet there are so many homes without people. The vast majority of these are in private hands. However, there are more than 2,500 vacant council houses throughout the State. Of these, 834 have been vacant for more than a year. Each of these homes should have a local family living in it. Almost all councils have unacceptably long waiting times for reletting, caused in part by underfunding on the part of central government, lack of council staff for turnover, red tape and bureaucratic delays in the approval of funding by the Department.

As the Minister knows, letting times vary quite a lot. For instance, in my constituency of Wicklow-Wexford, County Wicklow has double the letting time of County Wexford. The Minister is familiar with Wexford County Council. We both served on it at the same time. However, of the 108 vacant council houses in County Wicklow, shockingly, seven of these are lying boarded up for more than three and a half years. Four of them have been lying empty for more than five years and two houses have been lying empty for more than seven years. That is unbelievable. All the while, local families are looking at these crying out to have a roof over their heads.

Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for greater funding for refurbishment, an adequate number of council staff to turn them over and a faster streamlined process for getting vacant homes back into use. We want to see the average relet time down to, at most, 12 weeks and to ensure best practice is adhered to across all local authorities. There is nothing more annoying and insulting to those impacted by the housing emergency than the sight of perfectly good homes lying boarded up and empty. We need to see local families in these as a matter of urgency.

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Dublin City Council has 362 vacant homes that residents urgently need to be returned to the available housing stock. Of the approximately €50,000 needed to fully refurbish a council home, central government is funding only about 20%. Has the Minister heard of index-linked funding? Is this a deliberate decision of neglect?

The voids return programme must be revoked in order to provide a quicker turnaround for bringing social housing stock into use and an appropriate budget must be calculated to make this happen. The lack of appropriate funding can lead to inadequate repairs or the construction equivalent of trying to put a plaster on a bleeding head wound. One constituent in Inchicore, Dublin 8, was allocated her home in March. It had been void for more than a year. She has had nothing but trouble with the boiler, the heating and the water supply. The property requires additional remedial works and might possibly require a completely new heating system. There have been delays that lead to deterioration, the broken windows syndrome, or the nail that lost the horse.

Budgeting for voids maintenance needs to be realistic rather than aspirational. The Government is causing councils and, in some cases, tenants to pay for serious repairs in order to keep their homes livable and safe. Deputy Gould has done the maths. He is giving the Minister a quick win here. If I were him, I would take it.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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As I mentioned previously, we have 2,749 council houses boarded up and left idle. Some 800 of these have been so for more than 12 months. Another shocking figure is the 15,580 homeless citizens in emergency accommodation - not including those on the streets - including 4,775 children. Why is the Government allowing this to continue?

I spoke to a young man in Wexford town only yesterday. He is 34 years old and his wife is 30. Their rent was increased substantially and they had to leave the house they had rented for more than nine years. They had to spend nine months in emergency accommodation with their two children aged under two. It almost broke them. There are 39 boarded up local houses in County Wexford. How can anyone justify this position? How can it be explained to this family, or the many other families in the same predicament, why those houses are empty in a chronic housing crisis? Each of these houses should have a family living in it. Surely, in a country with huge surpluses amounting to billions, it is not an unreasonable ask to properly fund local authorities to maintain and return their homes to families in dire need.

It is totally delusional for central government to think that, in 2025, a cap of €11,000 per home is financially adequate to return these council houses to occupation, taking into account alone the high cost of materials and goods at today's prices. It is time to get real. These homes should be returned to families. It can be done. Four thousand seven hundred and seventy-five children deserve a home, a life and a future. Give local authorities the tools and funding they need to proceed with refurbishment works to bring vacant homes back into use without the need for departmental approval.

I ask everyone to please support the Raise the Roof rallies outside Leinster House on 17 June and in the rebel county of Cork on 21 June.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I will bring forward a solution. Right across this Chamber, people have outlined how there are vacant boarded up houses in every constituency. We are criticised by those in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who ask where our solution is. This is the solution. It is a genuine attempt to make a difference to hundreds if not thousands of families but the Government has dismissed it. The most disgusting thing about the Government's contribution tonight is it is upset with me and the Opposition because we do not give it a clap on the back or recognise what it has done.

I assume the Minister must be an intelligent man but his understanding of the situation is to say there are no more long-term voids after what the Government did in previous years. If there is a house that has been lived in for 70 years and the keys have been given back, that house requires a serious number of renovations, and not to a maximum of €11,000. The Minister was untruthful when he said local authorities can claim back what they want, once the average is €11,000. That is a cap in anyone else's world. Do not try to cod us.

We want to turn houses around in 12 weeks. The thing about it is we want to get rid of bureaucracy and the red tape. Council staff have to go up and down to Dublin for permission. We want to let local authorities do their job. We want to give local authorities the money and staff to do their job. The Minister comes here and asks why local authorities are not doing it and why houses are boarded up for so long. He is the Minister. He should be answering those questions. No house should be boarded up for years, but they are. I raised this with Darragh O'Brien, who was the previous Minister, and another Fianna Fáil Minister. I raised it at the housing committee. I was at the housing committee today, attended by the Housing Commission, which wants radical reform. This will not solve the housing crisis but it will make a difference for hundreds if not thousands of families.

I invite the Minister, as I invited his predecessor, who did not have the guts to take it up, to walk Dublin, Limerick and Cork with me and some of my colleagues to meet the families who are living next door to boarded up houses, with rats, mice, dumping and antisocial behaviour. The Minister came here and said that the Opposition does not appreciate all the Government has done. All he is short of is telling us, "Let them eat cake". It is not good enough. We have a solution. I want to move that tonight. It is about time the Government took it at face value.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I will deal with the Aontú amendment. The question is that the amendment be made. All those in favour abair "Tá" and all those against say "Níl".

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Níl.

A Deputy:

Tá.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Sorry, I thought it was the Government amendment.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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It is the Aontú-----

A Deputy:

It is the amendment to the Government's amendment.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Yes. It is Aontú's amendment to the Government's amendment.

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Tá.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Tá an ceist rite. The question is carried.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Vótáil.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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A vote has been called by the Government. It will be taken during the voting block on Wednesday night.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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In relation to our-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The other amendment comes first.