Landlords paid more than €8 million by Sligo County Council

LANDLORDS in Sligo were paid more than eight million euro by Sligo County Council last year, figures obtained by Independent Sligo Councillor Declan Bree have confirmed.

The payments to landlords total €8.4 million, paid under three headings: €5.2 million under the Housing Assistance Programme (HAP); €2.7 million under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS); and almost a half a million euro under the Long-Term Social Housing Leasing Scheme.to private landlords.

Cllr Bree, Independent, said the sums paid out were a huge transfer of public money.

He said tenants also would pay what he described as “top-ups” to landlords: “And every member of Sligo County Council knows that the majority of the tenants who avail of the HAP scheme are also compelled to pay significant top-ups to landlords as the maximum monthly rent limits payable for a household is insufficient to cover the cost of rents.”

Speaking at a meeting of Sligo County Council he said the current government and its predecessors had no hesitation “in putting millions of euro into private landlords pockets through the HAP and RAS schemes”.

However, he said that the same was not the case when it came to funding the erection of local authority housing in Sligo: “But when it comes to providing funding for this council to construct local authority houses, or when it comes to providing affordable housing, it is a different story.”

He added: “Over the past nine years successive governments have used the HAP Scheme as the primary source of accommodation for people who applied to local authorities for housing.”