James Heffernan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I wish her continued success in her brief. I understand the Minister of State spoke with councillors in Limerick about retrofitting and insulation of local authority houses. This issue caused me a problem when I was a member of Limerick County Council. The council's system was to insulate vacant stock first in preparation for tenants moving into the houses, while existing tenants, who were up to date with rent payments, were not entitled to have this work done. They did not qualify for grants because they were not home owners. This system stuck in the craw of many local authority tenants who saw houses being insulated and retrofitted for new tenants while they did not qualify.

In light of the findings of the Mahon tribunal, a sort of NAMA for local authorities was set up a number of years ago. I believe it is called the Housing and Sustainable Community Agency and it seems to be a very secretive organisation, as it is difficult to pin down what exactly it does. I understand it has taken over the assets of local authorities which bought land on the advice of the Department in the 1990s. They were told to grab land all over the country, but they ended up with a considerable bill that they could not afford to pay. I wonder, in the light of the Mahon tribunal report, whether it would be feasible for the Minister of State to see whether she could investigate the lands bought, the use that was made of them, from whom they were bought and exactly how much was paid for them at the time.