Breathnach queries vacant houses

LOUTH County Council has 91 vacant Social Houses that can’t be brought back into use due to lack of maintenance funding, a Louth TD told the Dail last week.

Deputy Declan Breathnach said: ‘It is a disgrace to have 91 empty homes waiting on upgrading works whicle the housing list grows bigger and bigger and we struggle with a homelessness crisis.’

He asked ‘ Why is the Department not funding the refurbishment of all our Local Authority voids? It does not make financial sense to have large numbers of voids while ‘ talking up’ a building programme.’

He added that under measures announced in Budget ’19, the Government is allocating exchequer funding of almost €2.3 billion to housing programmes.

In addition, local authorities will fund a range of housing services to the value of almost €93 million from surplus Local Property Tax (LPT) receipts, bringing the total housing budget in 2019 to almost €2.4 billion.

‘I pointed out to the Minister that none of this matters if the hands of local authorities are tied in refurbishing existing stock to bring back into use. I have asked that a chunk of the funding announced in the budget be ring-fenced for local authority refurbishment works.’