Over 3,500 council homes all over Ireland lay empty at the end of the first six months of this year, according to new figures.
It comes as the State’s 31 councils have over 95,000 people on their housing waiting lists with over 70,0000 people availing of the Housing Assistance Payment and Rental Accommodation Scheme.
The vacant council figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act to Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Mr Tóibín said: "It is incredible that in the jaws of a national emergency in terms of housing that well over 3,000 local authority homes are lying empty tonight.
"There are enough empty local authority homes in the State to house well over half the number of people who are homeless".
He said he blamed the State, the Department and the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien for this.
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"The State is failing significantly in terms of renting and turning around these empty council houses.
"It is incredible that the State is the biggest culprit. The biggest hoarder in terms of empty homes in Ireland, and I think it's unforgivable," said Mr Tóibín.
"It is correct that local government is at fault here. There's no doubt about it but it is also true that, you know, the housing policy, the housing provision and the objective of making sure that every family has a home really comes underneath the responsibility of the Minister for Housing and the Department of Housing.
Mr Tóibín said many council homes take as long as eight months to re-let. This length of time, he said, is too long.
The eight-month re-let time is confirmed in the National Oversight and Audit Commission report for 2022.
Turnaround of social homes in some counties improved, says Dept
In response, the Department of Housing said: "The most recent NOAC (The National Oversight and Audit Commission) report shows that the turnaround time for social homes in some counties has improved significantly."
The Department gave the example of Wexford County Council which reduced "its average re-letting time from 35.14 weeks in 2020 to 13.5 weeks in 2021.
"The Department continues to work with all local authorities to ensure social homes are turned around as quickly as possible."
In its statement, the Department added: "At the end of 2021 Local Authorities had a social housing stock of 141,483 homes.
"Local authorities will always have a level of vacancy in their housing stock, which will inevitably fluctuate over time as tenancy surrender and re-letting is an ongoing process.
"The reasons for vacancy can also vary, and may include units which are marked for demolition and major regeneration or earmarked for sale, for example.
"The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, is a matter for each individual local authority."
The Department said funding has been provided by the Government to support local authorities with "both standard re-lets as well as properties requiring more extensive works to be brought back into use".
It said: "Since 2020, 6,300 vacant social homes have been brought back into productive use and Minister O'Brien has approved €31 million in funding to support the return of 2,300 vacant local authority homes this year.
"A programme of works has been submitted by all local authorities under this programme, and the Department will make every effort to approve requests for additional funding where additional vacant properties can be remediated and tenanted in addition to the annual target."
David Minogue, a former town clerk in Enniscorthy and former communications officer with Wexford County Council, said there are many reasons re-letting of properties can take time.
"Just because a local house becomes vacant, it isn't a matter of moving a tenant in the following morning. It isn't that simple. There may not be a willing tenant.
"They might be looking for a house in a different area. They might be holding out to see could they get a new house as opposed to a second-hand house and so on.
"There may be other reasons. So, even if the house is ready to let and it is perfectly repaired in perfect condition it could take some time to get a tenant in there," Mr Minogue said.
Councils explained their vacant residential figures change very quickly because the vacant number can contain houses that are being renovated or in the process of being let to a tenant.
For example, Limerick City and County Council explained it had 228 vacant homes at the end of June but 81 of those have contractors on site.
Fingal County Council said it had 74 unoccupied properties at the end of June, but that 44 were in the process of being let out and 24 were undergoing repairs.
Director for Housing with Fingal County Council and spokesperson for the Local Government Management Agency Robert Burns said the vacancy rate needs to be put in context.
"Local authorities own and manage over 140,000 houses right across the country. So that figure of 3,544 actually represents about 2.5% of the housing stock. It's relatively small in that sense we don't want vacant properties.
"It’s part of a natural process. People move out, people pass on. There's a whole host of reasons why properties naturally fall vacant."
He said: "Fingal had 74 vacant properties out of 6,500 homes. So our vacancy rate there is just about 1%. So that's extremely low.
"I think if you just look at the number on its own 74, it seems high, but you have to see it in the context of the size of the housing stock. And that would be the same for all local authorities. But even at that, we have managed to actually reduce our turnaround."
Mr Burns added: "In the last six months to 12 months, we've got it down by a further six or seven weeks and we're constantly striving to reduce that turnaround time by work, by making changes to the repairs program, fast tracking that and also to the allocation system.
The turnaround time is around 30 weeks at the moment. That is still relatively high, but we're looking at other changes we can make to even bring that down to a much lower number," Mr Burns said.
Local Authority/Vacant
1. Carlow 36
2. Cavan 94
3. Clare 71
4. Cork County 184
5. Cork City 350
6. Donegal 171
7. Dublin City 712
8. Dún Laoghaire 45
9. Fingal 74
10. Galway County 105
11. Galway City 127
12. Kerry 149
13. Kildare 126
14. Kilkenny 78
15. Laois 35
16. Leitrim 20
17. Limerick 228
18. Longford 95
19. Louth 62
20. Mayo 65
21. Meath 56
22. Monaghan 18
23. Offaly 36
24. Roscommon 19
25. Sligo 25
26. South Dublin 89
27. Tipperary 112
28. Waterford 103
29. Westmeath 30
30. Wexford 54
31. Wicklow 175
Total 3,544
