€30M in local authority rent uncollected every year

It has emerged that local authorities are failing to collect over €30m in rent debt every year.

New figures obtained by the Irish Examiner reveal that certain councils are getting worse at collecting housing rent.

The worst offender was Dublin City Council, which failed to collect 14% of the rent owed to them last year- amounting to a total of €10m.

South Dublin County Council also performed badly - with arrears of over €6m by the end of the year.

Ballina Town Council failed to collect nearly half of the rents owed to them in 2005.

It comes amid complaints from local authorities over what they say is a lack of support from central government - but Environment Minister Dick Roche is blaming the problem on inefficiency at certain councils.