Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I refer to financing of local authorities. I suggest to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and I propose to the Leader that there should be a discussion following the budget on what I term, "the sale of the century", that is, the sale of all local authority houses to their tenants. It would be a very quick move to raise funds. In turn, these funds could be used to buy up the thousands of vacant houses at very reasonable prices throughout the countryside, which could house those on the waiting list. It would be a transfer of funds from those who have houses to those who have not. Now is the time to take such radical steps and it can be done. Some three-bed, semi-detached houses in a lovely and fully serviced location in Tulsk, County Roscommon, are being sold for €100,000.

After Easter, will the Leader arrange for a discussion on the structure of the HSE vis-À-vis the management of welfare homes, where an average of €100,000 per case has built up in clients' funds? The money should be used to assist the HSE in providing better equipment for patients to make their lives comfortable. There should not be a massive fund with no facilities.

Another anomaly arises whereby a patient who is transferred from a long-stay welfare home to a hospital will have the two or three days spent in the hospital deducted from his or her allowance, which must then be refunded to him or her. It would be a useful exercise for the House to put all of its consideration into this matter to determine how to improve the lot of those in welfare homes and the conditions therein and how to use the patients' funds in their best interests, as opposed to in the interests of relations who might receive the money in a will.