Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)

We have a bit of contradiction in that there are so many people without homes, yet there are so many homes without people. The vast majority of these are in private hands. However, there are more than 2,500 vacant council houses throughout the State. Of these, 834 have been vacant for more than a year. Each of these homes should have a local family living in it. Almost all councils have unacceptably long waiting times for reletting, caused in part by underfunding on the part of central government, lack of council staff for turnover, red tape and bureaucratic delays in the approval of funding by the Department.

As the Minister knows, letting times vary quite a lot. For instance, in my constituency of Wicklow-Wexford, County Wicklow has double the letting time of County Wexford. The Minister is familiar with Wexford County Council. We both served on it at the same time. However, of the 108 vacant council houses in County Wicklow, shockingly, seven of these are lying boarded up for more than three and a half years. Four of them have been lying empty for more than five years and two houses have been lying empty for more than seven years. That is unbelievable. All the while, local families are looking at these crying out to have a roof over their heads.

Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for greater funding for refurbishment, an adequate number of council staff to turn them over and a faster streamlined process for getting vacant homes back into use. We want to see the average relet time down to, at most, 12 weeks and to ensure best practice is adhered to across all local authorities. There is nothing more annoying and insulting to those impacted by the housing emergency than the sight of perfectly good homes lying boarded up and empty. We need to see local families in these as a matter of urgency.

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