8. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the plans he has to increase the funding per unit for refurbishing vacant and derelict local authority houses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12669/25]
TDs / Maurice Quinlivan
Maurice Quinlivan
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- constituency Limerick City 29 November 2024 to now
- party Sinn Féin 29 November 2024 to now
My question is about local authority vacant homes, known as voids. Are there any plans for Government to increase the money allowed to each local authority per unit? It is an issue that causes concern across the State, particularly when people live next door to a local authority house that is boarded up, which can be the case for a number of years. Is the Minister of State increasing the funding per unit?
I thank the Minister of State. I am not sure I heard him correctly in respect of a limit of €11,000. Limerick council gets €11,000 per unit for each house it does up. The average cost per unit to the council is €48,000. The cost of refurbishment is a major problem, which the council cannot afford itself. We need to look at the issue clearly. Local authorities such as Limerick cannot refurbish these properties without…
Limerick council has done a very good job when it can, when it has the money. The process is cumbersome. They have to go through bundles; they cannot just do one but have to do a couple. It takes quite a while to come back. Many of the houses that are boarded up have only minor works to be done. While waiting for authorisation from the Department, they end up being boarded up, which costs €3,000 to €4,000. Nobody wan…
I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion regarding young carers. Sixty-seven thousand children - let us call them what they are - provide regular care for adults. They do so in an unpaid capacity. It is a burden young people should not have to face that impacts their development and, often, their mental health. One in four of them goes to school hungry and without food because there is simply not eno…
First, I thank the Minister for the opportunity to speak on this debate which is long overdue. Sinn Féin has been looking for this debate for a long time and we are finally here.
It is only a few short weeks into the term of this Government and already it appears that the Government's housing plan has failed. We have a continuation of the previous Government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and their catastrophic handli…
The changes the Minister announced to the tenant in situ scheme will make more people in Limerick homeless. The changes announced by the Minister are a mistake and should be rowed back as a matter of urgency. The scheme as it stood was working and stopped thousands from becoming homeless. It should have been expanded. It should have been further funded. It is one of the simplest ways to deliver homes for working peop…
I am delighted to speak on statements on policing and community safety, but if we are to be serious about this the outcome has to be that people actually feel safe in their own local communities. Unfortunately, a lot of them do not. In 2007 John Fitzgerald produced a report that led to the Limerick regeneration programme. In that report he stated that we needed a minimum of 100 extra gardaí for the four regeneration …
I raise the issue of vacant local authority homes, of which there are always thousands across the State. There are 200 of them in Limerick at the moment, and 200 is always the number of vacant houses there. These are local authority homes that, for whatever reason, are not in use. The process of local authorities applying for funding from central government needs to be changed and simplified, so these properties can …
We need a commitment from the Government that the system will be changed whereby funding is given to local authorities to speed up the restoration of voids.
In a Dáil debate on 13 December 1977, the late Mick Lipper, a Deputy from Limerick, raised the issue of wandering horses in Limerick and asked what actions the then Minister for Justice would take regarding serious problems created by them. Here we are, 47 years later, talking about the same problems.
At least 1,431 wandering or stray horses have been collected in Limerick city since 2015. Unfortunately, most seized…
I thank the Minister of State for his response and understanding of the issue. He did not get to it in his speech, but I am glad he mentioned the ongoing project in Moyross, which does good work in that area. However, it is only a drop in the ocean in dealing with the issue.
Wandering, unkept and uncared-for horses have been a plague on working-class areas of Limerick for decades, as I said. I mentioned the late for…
That is not true.
It will come as no surprise to the Taoiseach that I wish to raise the ongoing crisis in University Hospital Limerick. As we sit here, 113 people are on trolleys there.
These are people who were assessed as in need of a bed but no bed was available for them. The trolley crisis at University Hospital Limerick continues to impact patient safety and well-being, as the Minister is well aware. Already this year, we have h…
I wish the Minister of State the best in her new role. I hope she and the Government will treat mental health as a priority. I think all of us in this Chamber are agreed that a lot of work needs to be done. A person’s mental health is as important as their physical health. If a person is disabled in one aspect of their health, then it will have an impact on the other aspects unless the condition can be treated quickl…
I thank the Labour Party for tabling this important Private Members' motion. Housing is the number one issue that we all deal with every day. Any of us who has a constituency office knows the stress, trauma and disaster that has been forced on the people of our country. It has been an absolute nightmare.
When I was first elected in 2016, along with University Hospital Limerick, housing was the number one issue that …
As this is my first time speaking in this new Dáil, I want to thank the people in Limerick who elected me for a third time. I thank my family and friends and those who campaigned and supported me in that, whether they gave me their first preference or a different preference. "Go raibh maith agat" to everybody for sending me back here for a third time.
On health, the programme for Government is the same rehash of und…