Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator McGreehan for bringing us all together to wear pink today and to make people aware of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We remember my own mother, who died seven years ago having unfortunately succumbed to cancer, initially breast cancer. It is great to remember but, as other Members have said today, it is important that as many women and, indeed, men as possible come forward to get tested. I again thank Senator McGreehan.

I agree with my Kildare colleague that St. Brigid's Day is a great day for a national public holiday. We are all very proud of St. Brigid and what she encompasses for everybody in County Kildare. She encompassed a lot for this entire country. I totally agree that the next national holiday should be on 1 February to celebrate a great Kildare woman and Irishwoman.

I wish to raise a housing issue with the Leader. As is the case for many of my colleagues in their areas, housing continues to be an issue for me where I live in south Kildare. I am getting many calls from desperate families who simply cannot get any accommodation in the overcrowded or non-existent rental market. Those people are, in desperation, turning to local authorities for any form of assistance for themselves and their families. One of the biggest frustrations they have, however, relates to vacant properties in the estates in which they are currently living and where their leases are finishing up. They are also being told by families and friends of other vacant properties in other estates throughout the area. At this stage, I am aware of a growing list of over 20 vacant properties in the area where I live. It would seem to me that each town and village in south Kildare has a large number of vacant homes, some of which have been lying empty for up to five years. I have contacted my local authority about this growing list and I continue to get a growing number of different answers, including that the authority does not have the personnel to carry out those surveys, funding issues and that some of these properties are not in its ownership. The real answer, of course, is that we are in the biggest housing crisis we have ever faced and none of the previous answers, or any other answer, can be accepted as to why these houses are not occupied in the quickest possible time by desperate families who are running out of time.

The Government must ensure that our local authorities can hire the personnel required to carry out inspections and agree a programme of works as needed and, as importantly, hold onto these people. Short-term contracts for these personnel are simply not good enough. Funding is needed to turn these vacant homes back into family homes as quickly as possible. It is not good enough that regular maintenance budgets have now stopped in some local authorities because the funding must be sought from these maintenance budgets to carry out the voids project. It is simply not good enough. We must find out who owns these other properties that lie vacant for so long. My own local authority indicates that the compulsory purchase order process is too restrictive, takes far too long and is simply ineffective. I know there was a debate on Housing for All last week but this is an important issue and it needs to be debated.