Deputy Ó Broin is allowed to ask a question, if he has one.

Not likely.

That is a perfect example of Eoin ar dhá thaobh. The scheme is going to work. It is already working very well. It is a good scheme, as Deputy Naughten has mentioned, of using vacant stock. Deputy Ó Broin would abolish it.

He said he would divert it to the local authorities-----

He would get the local authorities to make a compulsory purchase order, CPO, on them-----

-----refurbish them and re-let within a year.

That is 4,000 homes as a housing target. It is fantasy stuff and the numbers do not add up.

Can I answer-----

Can I answer the Deputies who actually have an interest in helping homeowners?

I ask the Deputy to relax for a second. I am going to answer the Deputies who are constructive and who want to actually make a change. First, the grant levels apply across the country. That will happen from November for rural and urban areas, including rural one-offs and city centres. That will be in November. In response to Deputy Naughten, while this might disappoint Deputy Ó Broin because he does not want to see progress, these are baseline targets. If we can get more applications in, we will provide the funding…

Ah, stop. You have had your bit.

These are-----

If the Deputy would show some respect to the other Deputies who actually tabled the questions about this-----

The Deputy is just trying to piggyback on this to create controversy and do down a scheme that is already working very well. To answer Deputy Naughten-----

You are easily provoked.

Being serious, this is, as Deputy Naughten said, a no-brainer. It is open to every local authority. It is a simple application. To answer Deputy McNamara's question, if the local authority designates the house as vacant - if someone comes to it with an application when purchasing a house and the local authority says it has been vacant for two years or more - that is all that is needed. The person will get the €30,000 grant there and then. If the prospective homeowner comes forward and says the home is derelict and …

If the property is on it, but if it is not on it-----

Yesterday, the Minister for Finance brought forward the vacant property tax, which will be managed by Revenue, and we have the vacant site register too. I can assure the Deputies that if the interest in this scheme translates into applications, which is happening now, we will provide additional funding above and beyond. There is no question about that.

There is a derelict site levy in place already.

I am not the Minister for Finance but the derelict site levy is in place. We need that stick. The vacant property tax is a commitment in the programme for Government and an action in Housing for All that we are bringing forward too. We have made some quite significant changes to the repair and lease scheme recently and removed a lot of those barriers. Repair and lease is a very good way of getting vacant and derelict properties back into use for social housing. I have seen many of them right across the country. Ear…