Page 19 of A Programme for a Partnership Government refers to housing. I very much welcome the allocation of funding this summer for 70 void houses to be completed in Limerick. I have raised this issue in the Dáil previously. I ask that the Minister would consider a common sense approach to voids. There are some voids in Limerick that are habitable and some people could live in them. Unfortunately, the houses cannot be let out because they have to go through a number of upgrades. This is quite bureaucratic because the houses are liveable. Some scheme could be put in place so the houses could be vetted to allow people to move into them and a common sense approach could be taken. People are on the housing lists and yet are looking at these empty houses that are liveable. However, as they must go through some sort of bureaucratic process and be upgraded, the houses are being left idle.

I thank the Deputy for the question. I am well aware of Deputy Neville's interest in this area because he has raised it on a number of occasions. We have the money available to deal with vacant or void stock in local authorities. The call for common sense is a good one but we also have to make sure that every process we have when it comes to spending taxpayers' money is a robust process. My officials are currently talking to the local authority to see what we can do in this area.