Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein)

Briefly, I wish the Irish under-17s well. It was nil-all ten minutes into their game. It is a good time for Irish football at the moment. Hopefully, that will continue today.

Last week, the Government launched its overdue housing plan, which is not so much a new plan but a new packaging of the failed plan of the previous Government. It does not offer any meaningful changes. There is no change of course and no recognition that Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's unwillingness to invest in public housing and reliance on short-term solutions has resulted in a complete housing disaster. Thousands are homeless, hundreds of thousands are living in inadequate, overcrowded or overpriced conditions and an entire generation has been locked out of home ownership and financial stability. We are in a housing emergency, and the Government needs to start treating this crisis with real urgency.

One specific issue that is the cause of huge concern, particularly in the inner city, is the number of voids across Dublin. Public housing units lie vacant and derelict for months and often years. In October, there were 353 vacant public homes across the city awaiting refurbishment. Dozens more publicly owned properties are lying derelict, with no plan or timeframe for refurbishment. A certain level of vacancy is normal for a landlord the size of Dublin City Council - that is acknowledged - but boarded-up homes lying empty for years at a time is not a symptom of a system working as intended. The council has pennies at its disposal to get these homes back into working order. It often costs up to €30,000 or €40,000 to refurbish a single flat, which the council is required to pay for out of its pocket. It can then reclaim only a fraction of the total cost from the Department of housing. This does not add up in terms of Dublin City Council trying to push on and deal with voids. The Government needs to ensure the funding is there for councils that are looking to bring voids back into use a lot more quickly.

The Dublin City Council's bare-bones budget can only stretch so far. Unsurprisingly, the properties that require significant investment to bring back into use are often idle for years at a time, with funding only going to the most straight-forward projects. Likewise, in the context of the Iveagh Trust on Kevin Street, an approved housing body stated earlier this year that it has 79 long-term voids. That is in a relatively small development.That is 79 units that could be used to house local families but which will lie empty and derelict due to the lack of funding for refurbishment until the trust can secure a grant from the State. In the middle of a housing crisis, it is scandalous that the State can allow any level of dereliction or long-term vacancy in social housing. These properties should be used to improve people's lives and prevent homelessness.

We urgently need a funding mechanism that is up to the task of ending dereliction and that will cover the full cost of renovation, as well as a dedicated unit within the Department of housing to tackle vacancy and dereliction. The waiting time on the social housing list in Dublin is already over a decade. Anybody contacting me will be waiting up to ten years. It is heartbreaking for people living in the conditions that many are living in and having to wait that length of time. Every home is desperately needed, and the Government needs to act to ensure public or socially owned properties are used to their greatest benefit.