Kerry County Council is committed to ensuring that any property in its ownership that becomes vacant is re-tenanted as soon as possible, but this requires finance. Currently, the council has 74 houses that are not in the programme for repair because they require an estimated €2.7 million to do the repairs and to bring them back into use. It was reported in November that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has an underspend of €500 million. I am respectfully asking that this money be supplied from this so that we can bring much-needed housing back into use in County Kerry. In other words, if the Government cannot spend it, we will.

We want to see those 74 voids brought back into play. I will take that issue up with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien. He has made a lot of progress through the local authorities by providing the extra funding over the past couple of years. The number of voids has, therefore, reduced. There will always be some element of voids, but funding should not be the constraint, not at this time. I will, therefore, raise that issue with the Minister and I will come back to the Deputy.