Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are many difficulties with housing and many proposed solutions and suggestions for solutions. A suggestion made by Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, at one of our parliamentary party meetings was that we should not take away people's social welfare benefits if they allow family members to move back into their home. I do not know whether this subject has been raised since the Minister of State came into the House. If, for example, my daughter moved out of my house and then needed to move back to my home with her children, I would not lose my benefits if the Minister of State's suggestion were taken on board. It would not cost me money to take family members back into my home. There would be some sort of incentive to allow this to happen so families would not find themselves living in hotel accommodation. We all know this accommodation is just not suitable for children. This really needs to be examined to alleviate some of the problems.

With regard to the lease-and-repair scheme in the action plan for housing, what was the uptake? Why did people not regard it as a good idea? There are several houses in Athlone that have been left empty after the passing away of an elderly person. People cannot afford to do them up to make them habitable and obtain the required BER certificate. Under the lease-and-repair scheme, one could borrow up to €40,000 from the local authority. Is it that the local authorities are not pushing the scheme enough and are not advertising it or trying to sell it? There are very many houses in my home town that could be dealt with through the scheme.I raised a suggestion with the then Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, when he was in the position. It related to giving incentives to shop owners to convert the area upstairs over shops. I grew up in Connaught Street in Athlone over a pub. When I was a child, every business on the street had a family living overhead and it did us no harm. It might have made me cheeky on occasion - I was known to be lippy - but it did not really do me any harm.