Many are debating the issue of housing. The Minister and Minister of State responsible for housing are in the House. The public is very cynical about any progress on this issue. The Central Statistics Office told us that, in 2016, in excess of 12% of houses were vacant. We are approaching local elections. Anybody who examines 100 good houses in any housing estate, in my constituency or elsewhere across the country, will see that one in 12 is unoccupied. Those living on either side of a vacant property say the residents have gone away. Most of the properties are owned by the banks, which are sitting waiting to make more money on the backs of the people. I have asked the Minister and Minister of State on several occasions when they will take a leaf out of the book of the local authority in Louth. It acquired properties that belonged to the banks through compulsory purchase order and there was no challenge taken constitutionally. I challenge anybody in this House who is out canvassing to identify why any 100 houses are unoccupied. It is time we got to grips with this issue. The people are laughing at those of us in this House who are not challenging the Government on the issue of good vacant houses.

I thank the Deputy for the question. We are aware that the CSO numbers from 2016 include homes that were for rent or for sale and holiday homes. Therefore, the statistic does not give the true number of vacant homes in the country. We now have a vacancy team in each of our 31 local authorities. The teams submitted their plans to my Department and are doing a deep dive to find out whether homes are truly vacant or whether they are just homes for sale or holiday homes. To get vacant homes from banks, we do not have to issue a compulsory purchase order, although we do in some instances. We actually engage through the Housing Agency with each of the financial lending institutions to take their vacant homes and bring them into social housing use. It is happening in every local authority area.

The health section of the programme for Government states: “We will fund hospitals and other healthcare providers for the work they do rather than on the basis of historical budgets”. There is also a reference to creating greater facilities for older people. The Minister for Health came to Longford the other day and had good news for St. Joseph's hospital but he took out the bata mór and gave Opposition Deputies a right lash for raising concerns about proposed health projects. He said we were deliberately using the over-expenditure on the children's hospital to raise such issues. That was a bad statement, bearing in mind that I do not always disagree with the Minister. If one considers Fine Gael's promises in the programme for Government, one notes that, in my locality, there was to be a 50-bed unit for older people in St. Patrick's hospital, a 50-bed unit at Sacred Heart Hospital, Roscommon, and a 50-bed unit at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, where there is absolute chaos in the accident and emergency department. Management and others have asked me to plead with the Minister to get the projects up and running. The Government has already delayed them so they are late already. When will Taoiseach announce the projects? Can we see genuine progress on them as quickly as possible?

The Deputy has raised three specific projects in his constituency. I do not have in front of me the schedule indicating when they will start but I will ask the Minister for Health to provide the Deputy with a detailed reply. I did not hear the Minister's comments but I can confirm that there are those around the country trying to make out that any time a project is delayed, even one that does not yet have planning permission, it is because of the overrun on the children's hospital. That is, of course, false. It is not right that people should be so disrespectful of their constituents to make those kinds of claims.