A Sinn Féin TD has accused the Government of ‘not wanting to solve the housing crisis’, after new figures reveal thousands of vacant council homes across the country. 

The figures released to Cork North-Central TD Thomas Gould reveal that there 2,749 empty council homes, all at a time when there are over 15,000 homeless people in Ireland. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, Deputy Gould described them as a “shocking failure by the Government”. 

“At a time when there are thousands of void, vacant, bordered up houses, we can house every homeless family if this Government wanted to do it,” he said. 

“So, what these figures show is that… I don’t believe that this Government wants to solve the housing crisis. 

“If they did, all they need to do is to give local authorities the funds to repair and get these houses back up. 

“Families should be living in them.” 

Solution

Deputy Gould continued that the Government needs to make it easier for councils to obtain funding for the refurbishment of vacant homes. 

If not, he warned, more of these properties would be “left idle until next year”. 

“The maximum a local authority can get is €11,000 per home,” he said. 

“What could you do trying to repair or renew a house with €11,000? 

“And the problem is, it’s only open at the start of the year and it’s closed now. 

“So, any house that’s returned to any local authority here will not be done up unless that local authority has its own money.”

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould speaking to media on the Plinth outside Leinster House. Photograph: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie. 12/01/2022

Deputy Gould argued that the scheme should be open for applications 12 months of the year. 

“What we’re looking for is local authorities to be given the funding to operate this scheme 52 weeks in the year,” he said. 

“When a house becomes vacant, get it repaired, get it out and get a family into it.” 

Deputy Gould described this as a “simple solution” but admitted that “in itself is not going to solve the housing crisis”. 

“What it will do is return thousands of houses to local authorities; we own these houses, the State owns these houses,” he said. 

“These are now privately owned. 

“We could get thousands of houses back, we could get families into them.” 

Deputy Gould concluded this would have a “positive domino effect” on the housing market. 

In a statement to Newstalk, Fianna Fáil said Housing Minister James Browne had been "very clear" he was against homes being left unoccupied. 

"The Department of Housing is working closely with county and city councils across the country to reactivate vacant properties," a spokesperson said.

"The Government has provided record funding to local authorities to deal with legacy vacancy. Since 2014, local authorities have received €360m to turn around vacant units, which has funded over 25,600 such properties.

"Last year 2,357 vacant social homes were brought back into active use under the Voids Programme which supports local authorities in preparing local homes for re-letting and builds on ongoing work to tackle vacancy and dereliction."

Main image: Houses in north Dublin. Picture by: Alamy.com.