Funding to fix up 'void' housing set to be announced soon

Local authorities will soon get a new round of funding to help bring derelict houses back into use, according to a local Fianna Fáil TD.

Minister Darragh O’Brien assured Deputy Brendan Smith that funding allocations under the 2022 Housing Voids Programme will be announced shortly.

Deputy Smith had raised the issue in a recent Parliamentary Question in Dáil Éirean and he noted it was "extremely important" that vacant properties are renovated and allocated "without undue delays".

“Minister O’Brien since July 2020 has allocated substantial funding to local authorities to enable them to bring back to habitable use vacant council housing. It is extremely important that vacant properties are allocated without undue delays and the financial allocations made in 2020 and 2021 have made a real difference in re-letting vacant housing stock," said Deputy Brendan Smith. "It is important that all housing is brought up to proper standards and allocated to individuals and families particularly at a time when there is such a demand for housing.”

The Housing Minister in his response to Deputy Brendan Smith’s recent Parliamentary Question in Dáil Éireann stated: “Since 2014, Exchequer funding has also been provided through my Department's Voids Programme to supplement the local authority funding available for the preparation of vacant properties for re-letting. The funding was introduced originally to tackle long term vacant units and is now increasingly targeted to support authority's to ensure minimal turnaround and re-let times for vacant stock."

The minister outlined that from 2014 to 2021 a total of €261 million was used by local authorities to bring 18,527 so-called "voids" back into use nationwide.

"Local authorities also provide significant funding from their own resources to address the level of vacancy within the social housing stock. My Department will continue to support local authorities in their work in this area. Funding allocations under the 2022 Programme will be announced shortly,” concluded Minister Darragh O’Brien.