Over 3,700 empty council-owned homes in Ireland, Dáil told

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

There are over 3,700 empty council-owned homes across Ireland, the Dail has been told.

The Government is to issue a circular to local authorities to say health and safety should be the only thing to delay empty council-owned homes being allocated to people.

Aontu leader Peadar Toibin told the Dail on Thursday that there were 3,779 vacant council-owned homes across Ireland based on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to local authorities.

He compared keeping council homes empty to exporting food during a famine.

“We also FOI-ed the local authorities as to the number of local authority homes that are empty in this state,” Mr Toibin said during Leaders’ Questions.

“In the jaws of the worst housing crisis in the history of the state, there are 3,779 council owned homes that are empty.

“Now, having empty homes in the middle of a housing crisis is akin to exporting food in the middle of a famine.”

Tanaiste Simon Harris said he agreed that council-owned homes “lie empty for far too long”.

“I’ve had a lot of discussions with a lot of people who are saying ‘Hang on, if only I have to get into that house. I don’t need the divil and all done, I just needed to be safe and I just need to be warm.’

“That’s why government intends to issue a circular to all local authorities to make it clear, health and safety should be the only grounds for the delaying of the giving out of a local authority home, not the bells and whistles.”

Mr Toibin also accused the Government of understating homeless figures by 892 people and of understating the housing waiting list figures by over 16,000.

He said he had sent Freedom of Information requests to every local authority in the country asking how many people are homeless in their area.

He said this produced a figure of 16,472, which was above the official homelessness tally of 15,580.

He also said that when local authorities were asked how many people were on their housing waiting lists, they came back with a figure of 75,000, which is above the official government figure of 58,824.

“Your ability to account the number of people who are on the housing waiting list at the moment is out by the population of Tullamore,” he said.

Mr Harris said that the anomalies were likely a result of duplications, as people may engage with more than one local authority for housing needs, particularly those living at county borders.

“These figures aren’t figures calculated by the government in a party political sense. These are figures calculated by the state in a robust, impartial manner,” he said.

Mr Toibin responded to say that it was not possible to be on two housing waiting lists simultaneously.

“There wasn’t as much pirouetting and spinning at my daughter’s ballet recital as I just saw there,” Mr Harris replied.

“This is far too serious to engage in conspiracy theories here.”

Mr Harris also accused Sinn Fein of being the biggest property owners in the Dail while being quizzed on whether rents would rise.

Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane called on the government to “stop it, scrap it” in relation to changes to rent pressure zones (RPZs).

Mr Cullinane said that the rent changes will hurt students and workers “stuck in an ever spiralling rental trap”.

“You talk about a balance. The balance here is tipped in favour of the vulture funds and the cuckoo firms and the investors.

“More money for them, more profit for them, which is always the case under Fine Gael, who represents a cosseted, privileged class, from my perspective.

“But see, when it comes to ordinary people who have to pay increase costs on groceries, on insurance and now on rent, they’re the ones who are paying the price.”

In response, Mr Harris said Sinn Fein were the largest property owner in the parliament.

The Fine Gael leader quoted the party’s director of finance Des Mackin, who told the Irish Times in 2020 that the party owned 40 to 50 properties across the island, with seven in Belfast.

“Don’t talk to me about the privileged classes when the largest property owners and investors in this house is the Sinn Fein party,” Mr Harris said.

“The biggest property owners in Dail Eireann, the biggest property investors are Sinn Fein, so don’t give me this ‘We’re on the side of the working people’.

“It’s just a load of bull that people see right through.”

Mr Harris cited the Central Bank analysis that indicated the RPZ changes would have “a positive” impact on supply and said that Sinn Fein’s call for reference rents would have seen rents rise for existing tenants.

He said the government would announce next month investment in “key enabling infrastructure” to deliver homes, including water, wastewater and energy supplies.

He also said that the government would take “more measures to protect students” in the budget.