I want to return to the issue of the scourge of vacancy and dereliction that blights our cities, towns and villages. It grates all the more in the teeth of a deepening housing crisis created under this Government. The local property tax returns for last year found that more than 50,000 properties were recorded as vacant. Figures released to me by the Minister for Finance yesterday show that nearly 5,000 properties have been declared as vacant in the vacant home tax returns for this year, nearly 2,000 of which are claiming an exemption, which leaves just under 3,000 properties liable for the vacant home tax. That is 3,000 out of the more than 50,000 properties recorded as vacant last year. These are extremely low figures and, furthermore, the vacant home tax itself is too low and it is designed such that the tax will remain low, regardless of whether a property is vacant for five or even ten years. Last year, only 21 vacant property refurbishment grants had been drawn down over a year and a half. What is the Taoiseach's response to today's returns? Does he agree that more has to be done to tackle the scourge of vacancy and dereliction across the State and if so, what does he plan to do?

First, I want to clarify, from the HSE CEO's memo of 10 November, that the recruitment freeze does not apply to consultants, graduate nurses and doctors or anyone who has been given a formal offer already. That runs until the end of the year and next year, the HSE can hire an additional 2,000 staff, and that will include nurses and midwives.

In relation to vacancy, the approach we are taking is one of carrot and stick. We are providing grants to people to renovate old buildings and bring them back to life. There is enormous take-up on that, which is very encouraging. There is also a fund of €150 million for local authorities to purchase derelict buildings and bring them back into use.

On the flip side, we have the vacant property tax and the derelict sites levy. That puts a cost on people who leave properties vacant or derelict.

I will take a trip down memory lane on the subject of vacancy and dereliction. On 28 September, I raised with the Tánaiste the scourge of vacancy and dereliction across cities, towns and villages. On that date, he told me my question would be better directed to local councils. It seemed it was not a priority for national government. The following week, news broke that the HSE is hoarding hundreds of empty properties across the country. Subsequent replies to parliamentary questions I tabled confirmed that other public bodies, such as Irish Rail and the OPW, are engaged in the same practice and sitting on empty premises. When I raised the issue again, it seemed the penny had finally dropped. Now the Taoiseach is saying there is a carrot-and-stick approach, but it is clear there is not enough of either the carrot or the stick when a mere 3,000 properties will be subject to the new vacant home tax, the Government's so-called silver bullet. If we take census estimates, that amounts to fewer than 2% of all empty properties throughout the country at a time when 13,000 people are homeless. Can the Taoiseach assure the House he will take more effective carrot-and-stick measures to ensure the scourge of vacancy and dereliction is tackled and people can see those idle homes turned into proper family homes for them?

I have never argued, and nor has anyone on this side of the House, that the vacant home tax was some sort of silver bullet. A set of measures is needed - incentives and disincentives, carrot and stick - and that is exactly what we are doing. If anything is shown by the work done by the Revenue Commissioners on the vacant home tax, it is that those who argued in this House that 150,000 homes being empty on census night meant they were vacant are wrong. There are lots of reasons a home might have been vacant on census night. It might have been for sale, between tenants, under renovation or due for demolition. The person living there might have been away for a few weeks or months and decided not to rent it out. Those who claimed there were 150,000 vacant homes based on census figures got it wrong. We told them so at the time. Will they admit they were wrong?