The Southern Star Tim Ryan, Oireachtas Correspondent Housing Issue Beyond Crisis Point

The Southern Star Tim Ryan, Oireachtas Correspondent Housing issue beyond crisis point - Collins While it is an imperative that standards be applied, there is also a duty on local authorities to minimise the time that houses are left vacant, Cork South West Independent Deputy Michael Collins told the Dáil. Speaking during a debate on a motion on standards in the private rented sector he said there should be a strict limit on the turnover time for social housing from when it becomes vacant to when it is reoccupied as opposed to the position of those in Wetherton, Bandon, who have been waiting weeks on end to have people appointed to houses that have been completed and are ready for habitation. “This is only to mention one example in West Cork, but there are many more, which is unacceptable,” he said. The housing issue facing Ireland is beyond crisis point, he added. Viewing the recent "RTÉ Investigates: Nightmare to Let" programme, he said it was appalling to see the situations in which some people have been forced to live by rogue landlords. Tenants' lives are being put at risk by unscrupulous landlords' disregard for basic health and safety and fire standards. “To say that there is a significant shortage of available properties around the country is an understatement,” he said.” However, going by figures released in the 2016 census, there are 260,000 vacant houses. This is a disgrace. It is commonsensical that these houses would go a long way towards solving the immediate housing crisis.” Deputy Collins said he spent weeks with the Minister of State Damien English and his colleagues discussing matters during the formation of the Government. “I was glad that the Government took on board the issues and suggestions raised by my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group and me about changing the use of units from commercial to residential and included them in A Programme for a Partnership Government, which reads, ‘The Action Plan will look at existing housing stock that is uninhabited, and vacant commercial units, with a view to incentivising the refurbishment and change of use to homes’." However, I am disappointed that little progress has been made in this regard. Urgent action is needed to solve this problem.” Horticultural sector facing huge storm losses Some companies in the horticultural sector are facing losses of between €50,000 and €100,000 as a result of the damage from Storm Ophelia, Cork North West Fianna Fail Deputy Aindrias Moynihan told the Dáil. Trees worth between €500 and €3,000 were lost but these will not be covered in any capital scheme, he said. “Support is needed in this area because if these businesses go to the wall, gardeners, landscapers and local authorities will end up importing trees from other parts of Europe,” he said. “That will leave us exposed in the context of bio-security. Has the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine examined the bio-security implications of this against the background of Dutch elm disease, ash die back and so forth? This must be considered in the context of us losing our tree growing sector.” In response, Minister Michael Creed said Storm Ophelia delivered losses to a whole range of producers, not just producers in the nursery sector. “There has not been a scheme of compensation for any sector, whether one is talking about farmers who lost crops, dairy farmers who lost milk or the nursery sector,” he said. “There is a grant scheme and I would encourage the sector to engage with my Department's officials on this. It is a good scheme and one that has been availed of previously. It will not deal with crop loss, in terms of stock, but there is sufficient latitude within the scheme to cover some of the associated costs of the storm, in respect of ancillary supports, production facilities and so on which may be covered. I would advise each of those enterprises to explore, through contact with departmental officials, how they may be in a position to benefit from the scheme.” North Korea ahead of Ireland is ratifying UN Convention The Government’s plans to ratify the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities were raised in the Dáil by Fianna Fáil Deputy Margaret Murphy O’Mahony. “The Minister of State with responsibility, someone who is part of the Government, Deputy Finian McGrath, is planning to visit North Korea, but what many people do not know is that that dictatorship is far ahead of Ireland in terms of ratification of the Convention,” she said. “Will the Minister of State be seeking advice from the North Koreans during his visit or will he actually do the job in hand in Ireland and have the Convention ratified before the end of the year, as we were guaranteed? The same was guaranteed last year, but it did not happen.” In response, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there are many countries that do not treat people with disabilities very well and in which they have fewer rights and services than here. “However, they have ratified the Convention,” he said. “In itself that tells the story - different countries adopt a different approach. Most countries just ratify and then forget about it. We do something very different and something much better, as we actually honour and then ratify it. It is absolutely our intention to ratify it as soon as we possibly can.” .

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