Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is on the same matter. Dublin County Council does not have enough money to complete the refurbishment of vacant houses and give them to new tenants. The same is happening in some other counties, which is evident to anyone travelling through the countryside. Why do councils not give first-time buyers an opportunity to buy those houses? People could fit them out to their own standards, spend whatever money they wanted and refurbish them gradually, as all of us did when starting out. To leave houses idle during a housing crisis is not good enough. Sell them to people, even if those people are on the councils’ housing lists. That is well worth doing. The Deputy Leader might speak to the Minister and revert to me.