Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator O'Loughlin in expressing our heartfelt sympathies to the families of the two young men who died so tragically in Greece. It seems to be a feature of this time of year that this type of thing happens. It is a great tragedy for the families and for the entire school community. It is just awful.

I want to turn to several issues relating to housing. When I came into local government in 1985, we used to build rural cottages. They were dotted throughout rural Ireland. They came within the category of social housing. With regard to social housing, the current limits need to be increased as they are unrealistic. For rural cottages, there was usually a requirement that the person had a site or access to one in some fashion, perhaps through a family member or relation who would give a small plot of land. These rural houses were built. It was good for rural communities in terms of social mix from every perspective, and that does not need to be elaborated upon. It was good for the dynamic of rural communities and bringing in new people. It was also good to give people the dignity of living in their own area. The only prerequisite was that they had access to a site. In some instances, it was possible to provide a site because of a bit of vacant land that the council owned. We should revisit this and I ask the Leader to convey this to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It would be worth looking at it again. The argument against it is with regard to once-off housing, but I do not agree with that. It should be done subject to proper planning and environmental considerations.

The Croí Cónaithe scheme, or rather the money for doing up derelict buildings, is very attractive. It is a very good scheme.There is a technical difficulty with it, though. In certain scenarios, councils can employ a clawback where persons do not fulfil the various terms. This is making banks less than enthusiastic about mortgages. The matter is being dealt with by the Department and I have been in direct contact with the Department myself, as have other colleagues, but I wish to bring it to the Leader’s attention again. She might raise it with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Regarding vacant housing, it is an amazing experience to walk around Dublin. I had occasion to do it recently. The number of vacant properties – large buildings that should be brought back into use – around this city is incredible. Perhaps Croí Cónaithe will help, but those properties should be brought back into use by whatever means necessary, from compulsory purchase orders to taxation. Seeing their number when walking around is frightening. I would invite anyone to walk around this city some day to see them. They are all along the quays and everywhere else.