500 homes lie empty as 7,500 wait for housing

There are more than 500 council houses lying vacant across Cork City.

And it is costing the city an estimated €1m in lost rental revenue every month, a city councillor has claimed.

Socialist Party Cllr Mick Barry warned that with savage cutbacks in housing maintenance budgets this figure will rise, and people will continue to languish on the city’s housing waiting list which now stands at over 7,500.