Laois TD hits out at Government, telling Dáil that ‘having vacant homes in the middle of a housing crisis is a scandal’

A Laois TD has hit out at the Government, telling the Dáil that “having vacant homes in the middle of a housing crisis is a scandal, particularly when they are local authority houses.”

Independent Republican TD Brian Stanley urged the Government to “get vacant council houses ready to re-let” by making grants more readily accessible.

Addressing Fine Gael TD John Cummins, Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Stanley said:

“There are more than 2,700 council homes vacant at the moment. A third have been vacant for more than a year. This is simply not on.

Reletting times average more than eight months and are much more in many cases. The cost of preparing a home for reletting has increased in five years by almost €10,000 per unit. It is now more than €28,000.”

Deputy Stanley observed that “the longer a home is vacant, the more it deteriorates and it becomes subject to vandalism,” and went on to say that “boarded-up homes have a negative impact on local communities, not to mention the families desperately waiting for them.”

The Independent Republican stated that an “over-reliance” on private contractors “causes delays and drives up costs,” citing his own county as evidence of that.

“Laois County Council has started using direct labour. It set up a dedicated reletting team of internal tradesmen and general workers,” Deputy Stanley said.

“It is a small county with a small budget, but it has a team doing that. It is speeding up delivery of relets. Reletting times are now three months and less. It has also proven to be more cost-effective.

“Out of a stock of 2,500 homes, fewer than 30 are empty at any given time. It would be better if it was even fewer than that. Eighty homes were relet last year in the county but only half received money from the Department.

“The average cost of relets in Laois is less than the State average. It works out at around €17,000 or €18,000 compared with the average across the State of more than €28,000.

“Relet grants from the Department are just €11,000. The Department only funded 40 of the 80 relets in Laois last year. That slows down reletting, along with the stop-start nature of the funding in how it is released by the Department.”

Deputy Stanley put forward the idea that the Government should try to emulate the Laois approach on a national scale, saying: “All local authorities should have a dedicated relet team made up of direct labour and use it where possible.

“The Department and the Government cannot have a stop-start funding programme for relets. It has to be moving all the time.

“The Government and Department must provide a greater share of the cost of relets; €11,000 is not sufficient. We simply cannot have homes boarded up in the middle of a housing crisis.

“It is not on. This is no longer sustainable.”

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