Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will conclude on this point. I fully agree with Mr. Moylan. There is a balance there and it is about making sure the services are delivered and the balance is right. However, the local authority system across the board should be very conscious of the level of vacancy and dereliction throughout the State and particularly in rural towns and villages. I might be from Malahide but I know rural Ireland very well over many years. The census will give us an opportunity to drill down into the actual numbers, as opposed to desktop exercises, which is what we are operating from at present, to find out if it is 196,000 or if it is a smaller figure. Given the audience before me, I ask that local government focus on that and use the schemes that are available through both the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to try to further the renewal of towns and villages in rural Ireland, to use those vacant properties, and to reduce the requirement for one-off houses at the end of a boreen with no services but where there is an entitlement under the rural housing policy of the given local authority, and the difficulties this creates then in terms of delivery of services and the delivery of services in an environmentally friendly way.

I thank the Chairman for this opportunity.