No funds to repair voids

LOUTH County Council does not have funding to carry out repairs to 91 empty houses, Chief Executive Joan Martin told councillors at last week’s monthly meeting.

‘We absolutely do not have funding to do the work,’ she said.

The Chief Executive also hit out at councillors, saying ‘ the financial management of the council is as much a matter for members who would not give me additional money through property tax. I will not have it flung back at me when I give you advice on the financial situation of the Council.’

According to the housing report before the meeting, there are 91 vacant properties, 56 of which require major refurbishing, with the remaining 35 houses requiring minor works.

Cllr Maria Doyle raised the issue of the 91 voids, saying it was her understanding that the Council had not drawn down money for voids. She asked if the council had received a letter from the Department about the availability of funding for long term voids. She feared that they were missing out on funding opportunities by not applying for money for schemes such as the LIS (local improvement scheme for roads).

Director of Service Mr Paddy Donnelly said the council didn’t have any long term voids which would be eligible for funding. ‘ There is no opportunity that we are not taking.’

The meeting also heard that the council had applied for funding for 15 houses which were long term voids and works on 13 of these were complete, with two in progress.’

To date €380,000 had been spent repairing vacant houses, of which €180,000 will be refunded by the Department.

Ms Martin said that the council didn’t have the money to apply for funds for which matching funding was required. ‘ We absolutely do not have funding to continue to deal with 91 houses.’

She told Cllr Doyle that she had not provided any additional money in the budget to finance voids and housing maintenance as they council does not have the money. ‘ We have a certain amount of money to spend and that’s all we have.’

Cllr Pearse McGeough found it ‘intolerable’ that there were 91 vacant properties houses which could be allocated to 91 families who would be extremely happy to get a home. He warned that the longer houses are left vacant the more likely they are to be vandalised.

Cllr Peter Savage had sympathy with the management who had ‘an impossible task’ as a small increase in the property tax might have helped.