Council claims unoccupied house figures are distorted

Speaking at Monday"s night meeting of Cavan Town Council Mr. Seamus Neely denied that the county had a 7.8% rate of unoccupied council houses. He stated that it appeared the figure also included holiday homes, which were not being used all year round, and served the purpose they were built for. 'The percentage quoted were for 2007 and included both Cavan County Council and Cavan Town Council. In the first six months of this year a high percentage of vacant houses included in the figure had been included in a major refurbishment scheme. They had to ensure they met housing standard before they were re-allocated,' he added. Fianna Fail councillor Paddy Conaty has called on the County Manager, Mr. Jack Keyes, to make a statement clarifying the situation. He said they had to make it clear that they gave out as many houses as possible. Mr. Conaty also stated that the local authority and not the Department of Social Welfare were the people who should house people. He added that rent subsidy was causing problems for a lot of people as well. Fine Gael"s Cllr. Terry Argue pointed out that they had offered houses to people and they were not willing to take them. 'There are a lot of people out their who would be delighted to get them.' Cllr. Patricia Walsh of Fianna Fáil enquired as to how the HSE would know when people refused to be housed on three occasions. She was not happy to see that Cavan was the third highest for unoccupied council houses in the country, especially when there were over 400 people on the council"s waiting list. Her colleague Cllr. Paddy Sexton stated that the whole facts were not as clear as they appeared. The members were responding to report over the weekend which put Cavan behind Dublin and Limerick who were both on 9.1% of council houses and flats that were vacant. Bernard Allen, Chairman of the Dail"s Public Accounts Committee demanded an inquiry into the scale of the situation as he estimated €1 billion worth of local authority property was unused while waiting lists lengthened.