There are currently more than 3,500 vacant council owned houses in Ireland and 112 of these are in county Tipperary according to Sarah Beasley, Aontu party spokesperson on Housing.
Tipperary is in the top 10 of the highest number of vacant houses at 112, the length of the waiting list in the county is at 3,353 applicants.
The number of Rental Assistance Scheme(RAS) payments was at 637 tenancies. HAP numbers are always significantly higher than RAS – the July Management report from Tipperary County Council states that 1,660 HAP arrangements are in place with an average of four new tenancies being set up with HAP assistance per week.
When setting construction targets for new home builds, the Department of Housing subtracts the number of those on HAP or RAS supports from the overall social housing list in a county.
Many argue that this approach results in new build targets being set too low to meet the current needs of those seeking affordable and secure housing.
The figures released also show that nationally there are 98,171 people on housing waiting lists.
Ms Beasley says “It is incredible that in the jaws of a national emergency in terms of housing that well over 3,500 local authority homes are lying empty tonight, well over 100 Tipperary families could be housed if the vacant stock was turned around faster’’.
Aontu also highlights that the HAP and RAS figures show the continuing reliance on the private sector for the provision of social housing with over €1B being spent annually on rent subsidies across the country.
