Victor Boyhan (Independent)

I thank the Cathaoirelach for selecting this Commencement matter. It is timely and perhaps even a bit premature given that Cabinet is today considering the Delivering Homes, Building Communities document, but that is for another day. We may hear something tomorrow.I welcome the Minister of State. I appreciate his coming here because this is an area in which he is directly involved and has vast experience. Also, he is a Minister of State in the relevant Department, which I appreciate and acknowledge.

This Commencement matter really arose from correspondence I received from the Minister, Deputy James Browne, dated 1 October 2025. It is a very positive letter. I thank the Minister for it and for his ongoing engagement. I have found him to be most effective and engaging regarding anything I have raised with him concerning his Department, just as I have found the Minister of State to be such. The Minister states in the letter that the programme for Government commits to introducing a new voids programme and that work is under way in the Department to roll out that programme. That is very important.

I am conscious, of course, that the Minister of State is going to launch, in the next day or two, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, with the aim of providing 90,000 starter homes over the five-year period. However, I am also conscious that there are thousands of social houses empty. I like to call social housing “public housing”, a phrase I prefer to use. The housing is a public asset. The homes are provided from public funds. It is important. There is not a day on which, like many Senators and councillors around the country, I do not receive calls to state there have been voids for a year, two years or three years. I walked the streets of Waterford, our beloved city, and was amazed by the voids and also empty private properties. Waterford is a classic example of a city that is really tackling the problem head-on. The Minister of State is a strong advocate in this regard, which I acknowledge.

When you have been years on a public housing list, you know every social house in the place because your hope and aspiration is that you will be in one of them one day. What is happening is unacceptable. There is a chronic lack of social housing, and social housing lists are continuing to grow. People are told they are put on a waiting list based on priority, and that is a matter for each local authority according to its social housing allocation plan. There are thousands of people in council houses up and down the country. We effectively have a housing assistance payment, HAP, that has been rendered useless. In the national press today, there is a story that in the past four weeks, only one of the 50 people approved for the HAP in the Meath County Council area was able to secure a HAP property. That is the scenario. I know that no one is here to vindicate or commend it. We all know we have a housing crisis and we look forward to the plans tomorrow.

My concern is about the number of vacant properties, the unoccupied units, the underused housing stock and the planned maintenance or lack thereof. The Minister of State will be aware that some local authorities are not maintaining their housing stock. I can confirm for the Minister of State, if he does not know it already, that some local authorities have not had officials visit their houses for over 30 years. Tenants I identified and spoke to in three local authority areas told me that although they have had tenancies for over 40 years, not once has any official entered their properties. Since it entails a landlord–tenant arrangement, this sounds very unsatisfactory to me. It would not be tolerated in the private sector. The Minister of State will be aware that I tried to bring in changes in this regard but did not have a lot of support. How and ever, let me refer to the refurbishment programme and the lack of funding. The city and county managers tell me there is a limited amount of funding per unit. What the Minister of State launches tomorrow may address some of these issues. Addressing them may be part of the plan or it may not, but I realise there is a Government commitment to tackle voids. I would really like progress on what the Minister referred to as the development of the programme in relation to voids. Where are we with that?