Only €720k for 350 houses to be renovated

By Luke Byrne

FUNDING of only €721,690 has been allocated to restore 350 boarded-up local authority housing units in Dublin.

The largest share of the money has gone towards 236 units in the Dublin City Council area.

Funds were also approved for 53 properties in Fingal, 25 in South Dublin and two in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown.

scandals

The money was allocated from a nationwide fund of €15m to bring back into use 1,008 vacant local authority units.

Housing Minister Jan O'Sullivan said that when the project is completed, €30m will have been invested and nearly 2,000 houses will have been restored to use.

She said: "I am determined to use every lever available to me to increase the number of social homes.

"One of the biggest scandals of recent years has been the high number of vacant, boarded-up local authority homes."

According to a statement, the investment will create and sustain hundreds of jobs in the construction sector.

Local authorities were encouraged to examine the role that community-based organisations who recruit, train and engage long-term unemployed people can play in the refurbishment programme.

"This is a positive programme that increases social housing supply quickly," Ms O'Sullivan said.

crisis

Many of the new homes refurbished under the programme are expected to be tenanted in the coming months.

A report will be issued on completions and tenancies of new homes at the end of October.

The allocation of funds comes at a time when homelessness continues to be at crisis point in Dublin.

lbyrne@herald.ie