Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the response.

We all believe in reasonableness and fairness and we can all accept that properties can be from time to time vacant. Nobody has any argument with that. In fact, the joint Oireachtas committee states that reasonableness must be applied.

I welcome the fact that the Department has made progress with the report and on its summary. I urge it to publish that report without any further delay.

I take the point about the 30,000 properties in Dublin. What they are saying essentially is that there are explanations for 16,000 of the 30,000. That is fine, but that means there are 14,000 without explanation that could house 30,000, 40,000 or 50,000 people. We are in an emergency and it is incumbent on the Department to publish the report as soon as possible and to bring forward recommendations.