Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not. Last year the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, requested that each local authority designate a vacant homes officer to co-ordinate actions to address the issue of vacant properties. I welcomed that at the time and I feel strongly that there should be at least one such officer in every large town rather than just one in each county council area. These people should not be taken from another job within the council. A new post should be created and that should be the person's sole job. All of the towns and villages in this country have premises above their shops, many of which are vacant. We have said time and time again that these properties should be used to house families. On the street on which I grew up in Athlone, Connaught Street, 70 families lived over their businesses when I was child. My family was one of them. All of those premises are empty today. It is the same in every town and village in the country. I was in Galway at the weekend and I walked along Salthill, where many of the premises are vacant.As I came out of Galway, I noticed that the former Corrib Great Southern Hotel is standing absolutely derelict, which is a disgrace. If it were used as student accommodation, students could move out of houses into which families could then move. Alternatively, it could be converted into apartments for families. When we drive out of Dublin along the quays each Thursday, we see many empty premises that look like they need some work to be done on them. When the Tánaiste, Deputy Coveney, compiled the housing action plan in his former role as Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, he came up with the idea of a repair and lease scheme to allow people to borrow up to €40,000 from their local council to do up a unit in which a family could be housed, with this money being repaid over a number of years. I would like the Leader to ask the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to come to the House not for a broad discussion on housing but for a focused debate on different aspects of the housing issue, including the repair and lease scheme. Perhaps the Minister will tell the House how many vacant homes officers have been appointed. How many of them are actually doing their jobs? What are the results of their efforts? We need some accountability and data to back these things up.