I want to raise the voids scheme, but I would rather have the name changed to what it is, namely, the empty houses scheme. When we talk about voids in local authorities, I would rather call them what they are: empty local authority houses.

I want to highlight the fact that a local authority only gets €11,000 to do up a house, no matter what condition it is in, if it is vacant. The other anomaly is that if the house has received any funding since 2014, it will actually receive no funding whatsoever. In the county that I represent, County Kerry, if our local authority has a house that is empty, it could cost €50,000 to do it up, but if it has received any money since 2014 it will actually not receive anything. The most we can get is €11,000, which as the Minister knows will do very little, but the other option is that we will actually get nothing at all.

In Kerry at present, we have a lot of empty houses, or as the Minister calls them, voids. I call them empty houses. That is not the fault of our local authority, our excellent housing authority. It is not their fault. I do not have to remind the Minister, who was a very prudent Minister for Finance - I respect the work he is doing - that over a three-year period he failed to spend €1 billion on housing. Now, more than ever, we need to review the whole system of dealing with voids, empty houses. We should treat it the same as a person in the private sector would treat it. If a private person who is serious about their business is involved in property, and if a house becomes vacant, they will tear at it, the same as a man or a woman at the moment who goes out to cut a field of silage, knock a field of hay, or plough a field. They tear at it, as there is a job of work to be done. If a house or apartment becomes vacant, the person who owns it will come at it in a systematic way. They will send in a plumber, painter or tiler and they will refurbish it by doing whatever needs to be done. Our local authority cannot do that because their hands are tied behind their backs, financially.

Will the Minister please take on board what I am saying, which is sensible and sound? He has the money. He failed to spend €1 billion over three years. I would gladly help him to spend it in County Kerry, if he would take on 160 houses that are empty. I am very serious about this. I know that the Government wants to assist and to do good work. We have 160 houses in Kerry that are voids. Could the Minister please give us the money and we will turn them around? We have the workers. We have excellent people on the ground. We will put people living in those houses – moms, dads, children, aunties and uncles. We will have them living inside in those houses as quick as you can say, Jack Flash. All I am saying is that the Minister should please look at that whole system, resource it properly and remove the limit of only allocating €11,000 or nothing.

I am sure the Deputy would not be short of many great ideas regarding how to spend €1 billion in County Kerry. I am also sure he would be able to turn that money to very good effect. But on the point about €1 billion, it is important to make the case that during two of the three years that Deputy Michael Healy-Rae refers to, we were dealing with a pandemic during which the construction sector was closed for long phases.

Ridiculously.

The sole reason as to why there were capital underspends for the year before last is that during that period the construction sector was not functioning in a normal way. That is the key reason.

The Government closed it.

I completely agree with the point Deputy Michael Healy-Rae made about voids. In many ways, the term "void" is very misleading. It is an empty home. In Constitution Hill, at the heart of Dublin Central, a very different setting, I have seen the way in which properties that were described as voids have now been turned into homes for people who needed them. That is why the successful delivery of, let us call it, an empty home programme via our local authorities has been a really important element of what the Government has been doing.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae made reference to the figure of €11,000. We will need to look at that figure a bit more, because in the information that I have, I am informed that in 2021 the average funding for the non-standard voids programme, to use that phrase again, for a property was €50,000, which is well ahead of the €11,000 to which Deputy Michael Healy-Rae refers. That is something that is going to need a bit more work. In relation to Kerry, I understand that since 2014, up to the end of 2022, €8 million in funding has been provided, which has led to the remediation of 723 homes. I think Deputy Michael Healy-Rae made the point that if funding has been received in the past then one cannot get more funding. I do understand that in 2022 Kerry County Council received a further €239,000 to carry out more maintenance works on properties that would have been empty homes.

Overall, it is something on which we can make more progress as a Government. From an environmental perspective, it makes much more sense to rehabilitate properties that are already built, which is why there is €31 million against this programme for the country overall. Through that, we have allocated €616,000 for Kerry County Council to turn more vacant properties into homes. I am sure the Deputy will have further ideas on how the programme can work better in the future. Whether it be Kerry, Dublin or anywhere else, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Government are fully committed to the adequate funding of an empty home programme to get empty properties full of people who deserve a home.

I appreciate that the Minister is talking sense and calling them empty homes, not voids. It is nice to hear a person telling the truth as it is. I stand over the statement, because it is a fact, that if a house received funding since 2014, it cannot receive funding a second time. I would like the Minister to examine the empty house scheme and ask that local authorities are adequately resourced.

In the brief time remaining to me, I will speak about our local authority, Kerry County Council. I appreciate its workers, whether it is the CEO, Moira Murrell, director of housing, Martin O'Donoghue, or all of the clerks of works out on the ground today as we speak maintaining and looking at property and seeing what they can do to help people on the housing lists. I thank all of the investigating officers, all of the ladies and men working in the offices of Kerry County Council's housing department for their work. I ask the Minister to ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Taoiseach and the Government to adequately resource those excellent people so they can carry on with their excellent work. I thank him for that.

I appreciate the importance of the empty house programme; it is why, between 2020 and 2022, more than 8,000 so-called voids were turned into homes across the country. In recognition of the Deputy's point that we should turn empty properties into full homes at a time of such great housing difficulty, that has happened. The programme for 2023 is to use €31 million, which I mentioned a moment ago, to add to the 8,000 homes and deliver a further 2,300. These programmes are fully funded and are being implemented all over the country. I see them happening with my own eyes. Where there are further opportunities to turn empty properties into homes, I know the Minister will act upon it. I acknowledge what the Deputy said about the excellent people in Kerry County Council. I am sure all of his Government colleagues representing Kerry would join him in recognising their work.