€1.3m to refurb housing in Cavan and Monaghan

Nationally 2,398 applications from Local Authorities across Ireland have been approved at a cost of €39.8 million, with further applications anticipated.

Local authorities in Cavan and Monaghan will share an allocation of €1.3 million, money which will be spent preparing vacated social housing for re-letting.

The lions share of the allocation from the Department for Housing, some €969,000, will go to Cavan County Council will enable them to fix and relet 71 local housing units.

A sum of €324,000 will meanwhile be spent by Monaghan County Council on upgrading 37 housing units.

In the case of both councils, their applications were categorised into three funding streams; standard voids at an average cost of approximately €11,500, homeless voids at an average cost of €17,300 and long-term voids at an average cost of €47,000.

In relation to Cavan County Council, the local authority has received €1.65 million of funding from 2014 to 2019, resulting in 137 units being returned to use.

The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority.

During 2019, expenditure of some €26.6 million was recouped by local authorities under the Voids Programme.

The latest allocation of funding was welcomed by Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys.

She said there had been a fantastic response from local authorities to the 2020 Voids Stimulus Programme.

As part of the July Stimulus Programme, the Government announced over €40m for the refurbishment of voids, the largest single amount ever announced under the voids programme.

Nationally 2,398 applications from Local Authorities across Ireland have been approved at a cost of €39.8 million, with further applications anticipated.

“The Government is helping local authorities and developers to plan and build better and more houses for people to live in, particularly during the current crisis.

“This includes providing social housing supports for people who cannot afford to provide a home for themselves and creating an environment that encourages builders to deliver houses for people who wish to buy their own home,” said Minister Humphreys.

Also welcoming the allocations, Cavan/Monaghan Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith said: “For some years I have constantly highlighted to successive Housing Ministers the need to deal with vacant Council housing stock. It is wrong to have so many houses vacant throughout the country when so many people are on Council housing lists.

“This is the second financial allocation made by Minister Darragh O’Brien for these housing works since July. I had raised with the Housing and Public Expenditure Ministers the need to provide additional funding for this programme and the Government’s July Stimulus Package provides for this expenditure.”

Fine Gael Senator Joe O'Reilly finally stated that he would continue to work with Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien in a bid to to “ease housing constraints” on families.