Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I have put in a freedom of information request to all local authorities seeking the number of vacant local authority properties that exist. Incredibly, the information I have got shows that there are 3,500 empty local authority homes at the moment. The State is the biggest hoarder of empty homes in the country. We have done more digging into this and have found that, on average, it takes eight months to turn around a local authority home and three weeks to turn around a private home for re-rent. Many of these local authority homes are closed for one year or two years in certain areas. Nearly 14,000 people in the country are deemed homeless. Those 3,500 homes would accommodate all the homeless people in this country. Dublin City Council, incredibly, is spending €300 million on homelessness this year. That is one in every five euro it will spend. Surely the Government needs to get it together by turning around these local authority homes in a speedy fashion in order that we can get families into them as soon as possible. Why is there a disparity between the public turnaround of homes for re-rent and the private turnarounds? Surely there is a responsibility on the Government to get it together on this.

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