John Kelly (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I have about six questions for her, but I will confine myself to three because the Cathaoirleach is anxious not to waste time.

When a person who is in a shared ownership scheme and who has been a social welfare recipient for 25 years pays off his or her mortgage, he or she may owe as much as €70,000 to the local authority, which will be completely out of the person's reach. Could that debt not be written off when the person has paid off the mortgage element of the debt?

The Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, should send out renewal notices. People who have signed up with the PRTB may not know when the year is up and should receive reminders, as we do for car tax.

Finally, many vulnerable people bought houses in good faith in what are now classified as unfinished estates. I know of an estate in my own area where there are only two owner occupiers in an estate where 40 houses are inhabited and 30 need to be demolished. This estate is going to rack and ruin. The developer has gone into liquidation and I can see no hope for these people. They have beautiful houses but they are in an estate that is filthy and run down. When estates that are well progressed and where there are many family units are acquired from NAMA, consideration should be given to people like the owner occupiers I speak of. There are not many of them. Could they not be allowed to transfer to another estate and have their original property in the unfinished estate acquired by the local authority? No matter how long it is there, the run-down estate where they are living will never improve.