Just 1% of vacant homes target reached

ONLY eight vacant homes have been renovated for social housing despite a Government target which said 800 such homes would be repaired by the end of this year.

Figures obtained by Fianna Fáil TD and chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness, John Curran, reveal how the Government is failing to meet its targets, which were set as part of the Repair and Lease Scheme.

The scheme was supposed to target empty private properties in need of renovation and capable of being rented for social housing or to those in receipt of Housing Assistance Payments in a bid to increase the number of housing units available.

New figures obtained by Mr Curran reveal how only 102 such units have been deemed suitable for social housing since March.

Furthermore, only eight of those have reached a stage of agreement to lease despite the Government target of 800 by the end of this year – a completion rate of just 1%. Mr Curran said: ‘Back when the Government’s plan, Rebuilding Ireland, was launched, then-minister Simon Coveney committed to a target of bringing 800 vacant units back into the market by 2017 and 1,600 by the year 2020.

‘It is already wholly apparent that these are impossible targets given the current rate of slow pace.

‘It is estimated that there is somewhere in the region of 200,000 vacant properties nationwide and over 40,000 in Greater Dublin alone,’ he said.

‘An agreement to lease has been signed in the case of eight units across the entire country, while only seven have been identified as suitable in the Dublin region.

‘It is difficult to envisage even these units being ready for tenanting at any stage soon,’ he added.