Funds are required to address the number of vacant houses in Tipperary

 Tipperary Sinn Féin councillors David Dunne and Annemarie Ryan today slammed the government for failing to resource local authorities and allowing public homes to lie empty in the middle of a housing emergency.

Their comments come as FOI data released to Sinn Féin show over 750 Council Homes are currently boarded up for over a year across the state.

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Councillor David Dunne; “There is nothing more insulting to those impacted by the housing emergency than the sight of a perfectly good home left empty. Each of these homes should have a family living in them, children growing up in those four walls. Instead, these homes are empty, and children are growing up in hotels. That is beyond scandalous.

I am sick and tired of the government’s excuses and broken promises. They try to blame everyone but themselves. The reality is that this is an issue in all local authorities and in far too many communities because of their failings. They do not provide enough funding to maintain homes and they do not provide enough funding to return them to use.

Families in Tipperary are crying out for homes while perfectly good homes have been left to rot. We know that these cause dumping and anti-social behaviour. They stigmatise decent communities and for people in Tipperary they are a constant reminder of the government’s failures.”

Councillor Annemarie Ryan: “Tipperary County Council should be funded to do their job. The €11,000 provided by central government for reletting vacant properties is too low for properties that need significant repair. In addition, red-tape and bureaucracy coupled with underfunding leave homes vacant for too long

In County Tipperary the average re-let time for a vacant council house is over 30 weeks. There are currently 31 houses empty for more than 6 months. This is too long; we want this reduced to 12 weeks and an end to long term vacant council properties.

These empty homes are a constant reminder of the failures of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It is terrible that there are adults stuck living in their parent’s back bedroom while the house next door is boarded up & empty, that there are young people boarding planes to start lives in Australia when they could be starting lives in these empty homes and that there are children walking home from school today past empty homes to the hotel room they share with their entire family.

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We guarantee that a Sinn Féin government would not stop until long-term vacancy in Council homes had been ended. We would cut the red tape and end the bureaucracy. We would do everything to ensure that nobody watches homes rot while they cannot access secure accommodation.”