Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Wilson's call for a discussion on the 3,500 vacant social housing units. I totally share his concern. I am aware that money was made available in previous budgets to turnaround the number of vacant units more quickly. However, I disagree with the Senator on one point. Not all of the units were vandalised by tenants. There are a number of the units where the tenant will have died due to natural causes, such as old age, but there is no successor tenant to take over the tenancy. Housing standards have also improved dramatically over the years so many houses must be completely and totally refurbished.

I shall outline another scandal. A brand new kitchen or bathroom installed by a tenant must be removed and the property restored to the standard housing unit provided by a local authority. That is the epitome of nonsense. We must examine the vacant housing unit scenario and how quickly they can be made available. Some local authorities have introduced innovative measures that allows housing units to be turned around more quickly. For example, in the Dublin City Council area tenants can avail of a unit and carry out some of the work themselves.

Senator Wilson mentioned the larger problem of 98,000 people being left on the housing waiting list and practically no construction of local authority social housing. Along with asking the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, what measures can be taken to turn around the empty social housing units more quickly, we need a larger debate on the future of social housing and where it is going.