I previously raised with the Taoiseach the issue of vacant and derelict homes. According to the CSO, about 8% of dwellings in Ireland are vacant. We observe vacancy and dereliction across our communities in our towns and cities yet the last time I looked at the derelict homes register in my area, it only had ten derelict properties in Dublin Bay South. In any constituency, that would represent a drop in the ocean in terms of the number of properties that are vacant or derelict. What measures are proposed by the Government to ensure we will have an effective derelict homes register in operation across the country? Will the Government ensure there are sufficient numbers of vacant homes officers across the country in councils to investigate vacancy and dereliction properly and ensure that there are consequences for allowing properties to fall into dereliction and ensure we can have some trust in the levels of vacancy and dereliction that are reported? Clearly, there is a huge issue about just knowing which properties are vacant and derelict currently.

We are instructing all the local authorities to carry out vacancy surveys. We have put dedicated teams into each local authority around vacancy. Those teams are conducting surveys street by street of all vacancies in core areas so we will come up with a detailed register for each local authority to complement the work of the CSO in that area. This body of work is under way. We hope to have real details on that later in the year. It is very important to us.