Major shortfall in refurbishing vacant council houses in Cork

The Government has been accused of “spin” with its plan to tackle the housing crisis after it emerged it had only agreed to fund the refurbishment of 71 of 113 vacant council houses Cork County Council had asked it to.

Details of the refurbishment plan for so called ‘voids’ (vacant council houses) got a cool reception from some county councillors, most notably Cllr Frank O’Flynn (FF) who had asked for a comprehensive report on what was being done to tackle the housing crisis.

He said he was surprised to see that the Department of Environment had only agreed to fund 71 refurbishments at an estimated cost of €1.4m when there were so many families crying out for housing.