Seanad debates

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

10:30 am

Photo of Catherine ArdaghCatherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to convey the sympathies of the Fianna Fáil Party to Mr. Gowan-Smyth's family and, in particular, to his wife. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

I wish to mention a matter I have raised many times in this Chamber, that is, the housing crisis and this Government's lack of action on it. The issues relating to the crisis include spiralling rent costs, a rushed and poorly-executed rent cap strategy and a flawed first-time buyers' grant in respect of which only 21 contractors throughout the country have registered to date. Today, I wish to raise another failure of this Government. I refer to the repair-and-leasing scheme, which is designed to bring vacant and unused houses back into use by allowing councils to enter into long-term leases with property owners to allow the latter to refurbish properties and let them out to tenants. So far, however, the Government has only allocated €6 million for refurbishing 150 properties when there are more than 40,000 vacant properties in the greater Dublin area alone. With a severe lack of housing supply in the market, every effort must be made to ensure that idle properties are brought back into the market and that every avenue is explored to increase the supply. My constituency office is continually inundated with housing queries from constituents. There are more than 3,500 vacant and unused properties in Dublin South-Central alone. It makes sense that measures would be introduced to get vacant properties back on the market and to put long-term leases in place to provide for extra social housing nationwide. The repair-and-leasing scheme is a quick solution, but it should only be operated in parallel with the construction of new builds. We all know that supply is the elephant in the room with regard to the housing crisis. I urge the Minister to increase the funding to the repair and lease scheme and to ensure that more funding is given to local authorities, as a matter of urgency, in order that they might build new homes, especially in the Dublin area.

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