Last night in my constituency, a community came under attack from youths lighting fires and engaging in antisocial behaviour. In part, the reason for this is derelict council properties that have been allowed to lie idle for years. There are a number of problems. First, thousands of families in Cork are crying out to be housed. Second, they are looking at houses that are lying idle. Those houses are a magnet for young people, gangs, antisocial behaviour and criminality. These people are terrifying and terrorising communities. I have asked the Minister to give local authorities complete authority to do up these houses instead of leaving them lie idle for years, to cut out the red tape and bureaucracy in Dublin and to let Cork City Council work on this matter. Will the Taoiseach support my call and ask the Minister to allow this?

The Derelict Sites Act 1990 is in place and the local authority should intervene. The Deputy would have been a very active member of the local authority up to quite recently when he was successfully elected to this House in the general election that took place nearly a year ago now.

The Deputy knows well that the local authority can and has the wherewithal to intervene, particularly in the context of derelict sites and vacant properties. I accept his point that vacant properties are a magnet for antisocial activity and behaviour and it is not acceptable. I do not know whether the Deputy has been in touch with the local authority in respect of this. I will, however, make the Minister aware of the fact he raised the issue today.