Housing voids funding rules
Tom Neville said councils were hampered when accessing funds for housing voids because spending headings were too rigid for actual repairs. The Tánaiste said he would pass the concern on and noted substantial progress had already been made in Limerick and elsewhere.
Page 19 of the programme for Government concerns housing and increasing the supply thereof. I have learned through my own research with Limerick City Council and Limerick County Council that when councils go to draw moneys from the Department for particular housing voids they must do so under various sections and headings. So much of the money is allocated under different headings. These headings provide for insulation, cavity blocks or whatever. In practice, however, the moneys a council actually requires for a specific house may supersede the amount of money given under a certain heading. It is becoming an increasingly bureaucratic process, as opposed to one that determines €20,000 is required to fix a house and enables a council to draw down €20,000. Eradicating that would be a simple solution to get voids back into our housing stock. I ask the Government to take this on board or investigate this issue and come back to me on it.
