40 vacant council houses in Cavan have been left empty for more than 12 months.
That's according to Freedom of Information figures obtained by Sinn Fein last week. Currently Cavan County Council has 81 homes vacant with 25 of them unoccupied for up to 6 months, 16 vacant for 6 months to 12 months with the remaining 40 empty homes vacant for between 12 to 18 months.
In Monaghan there are 10 vacant homes in total with 9 of them empty for up to 6 months and 1 empty for 6 to 12 months.
Monaghan County Council have one of the lowest figures of vacant council homes in the country. Nationally, one in every four council houses across the country have been left vacant for over 12 months.
Freedom of Information figures show almost 3,000 housing units owned by the State are boarded up, with those in Limerick, Wicklow, Tipperary and Louth lying empty the longest. Sinn Fein says the figures they obtained show a 'shocking failure' by the government in funding local authorities.
Senator Pauline Tully believes every homeless family could be housed in these unoccupied council homes known as 'voids' across the country. She says 40 empty houses belonging to Cavan County Council for more than 12 months isn't good enough especially when people are finding it so hard when it comes to housing and are waiting many years as it stands to get a local authority property.
Cavan County Council have issued the following statement to Northern Sound this afternoon.
Cavan County Council owns a very large portfolio of more than 2,250 houses and at any given time a number these houses will be vacant for a variety of reasons.
There is an on-going process of bringing vacant council houses back into use.
When a house becomes vacant, the Council will avail of the opportunity to carry out improvement works to the house, and in some cases energy upgrade works.
Every effort is made to complete the improvement works, and subsequently to reallocate the house to a new tenant as quickly as possible..
Construction works have been completed on 5 of the 81 houses, works have commenced to return a further 24 of these houses back into use, and arrangements are in place to commence work on many of the remaining properties.
In 2024, Cavan County Council returned 61 vacant houses back into use, and this continues to be a very high priority for the local authority.
