Just three councils have dedicated vacant homes officer

Just three local authorities – Clare, Dublin City and Kerry – currently have a full-time vacant homes officer. File picture: Darren Faul

A target in the Government’s landmark Housing for All strategy to ensure all 31 local councils in Ireland had a full-time vacant homes officer was missed last year.

According to figures released via parliamentary question this week, just three local authorities – Clare, Dublin City and Kerry – currently have a full-time vacant homes officer.

The Housing for All progress report published this week detailed that progress in achieving the aim of a full-time officer in all 31 councils was now “delayed”, with a revised target date of the second quarter of 2022.

All county and city councils have at least one part-time vacant homes officer, with a number, including Cork County, Meath, Monaghan and Sligo, having two.

In a bid to meet this target, Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning Peter Burke announced to the Dáil this week that a circular had been issued to increase the funding to vacant homes offices by 20%.

“We also now have a plan to transition all vacant homes officer posts into full-time positions,” Mr Burke said.

“Heretofore, as members will be aware, only three counties in the 31-strong local authority network had a full-time vacant homes officer. We expect by quarter two of 2022 to complete the transition and have that as a full-time service throughout the 31-strong local authority network.” 

Accusing the Government of “spin”, Social Democrat housing spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan highlighted the failure to deliver vacant homes officers in every local authority as an example of the “exceptionally poor delivery” of the Government on housing.

At an Oireachtas committee hearing this week, architect Mel Reynolds told TDs and Senators that there could be in the region of 137,000 vacant homes in Ireland.

This included 40,000 existing dwellings that could be brought back into stock in the coming years if the correct initiatives were deployed, he said.

One step Mr Reynolds suggested was streamlining the process to bringing a vacant home back into residential use.

“Regulatory barriers to the reuse of vacant buildings add cost, delays and uncertainty which contribute towards vacancy in mixed use buildings,” he said.