Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has challenged the Minister for Housing, Simon Coveney to explain how over 2,500 applicants and families are on the housing list in Donegal when the recent report from the Housing Agency indicated that over 13,000 or 18.2% of homes are vacant across the county.
Senator Mac Lochlainn, who said these homes are NOT holiday homes, said the Housing Agency has conducted research on the number of empty homes across the state.
The report, which has been presented to the Minister for Housing and the Dáil Housing Committee, has revealed that as many as 230,000 homes across the state are vacant.
He said “In Donegal there are over 13,000 vacant properties not including holiday homes. At 18.2% of homes in the county, this is a shocking figure”.
“Returning as many of these vacant properties as possible back into use would be of enormous benefit to all sectors of our housing system. They could be used to get families out of emergency accommodation and off the housing list. At the same time bringing them back into use would help reduce the costs of renting homes in the private sector.
“The Housing Agency recommends a range of measures to incentivise and force owners to bring these units back into use. These include refurbishment grants, compulsory purchase orders and a vacant property tax. All of these options must be explored.
“A number of local authorities are already using compulsory acquisition powers to bring some vacant sites back into use. However the Minister for Housing must make more funding available to Donegal County Council to allow them to acquire a greater number of these units”.
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