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AONTÚ LEADER PEADAR Tóibín has said the number of council-owned homes across Ireland that are empty is “akin to exporting food in the middle of a famine”.
Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon during Leader’s Questions, Tóibín said he had submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to every Local Authority and that the information he received “contradicted the information the Government is giving out”.
One of the questions he asked Local Authorities was about the number of council-owned homes that are currently empty.
This figure across the State is 3,779, according to information received by Tóibín.
“Having empty homes in the middle of a housing crisis is akin to exporting food in the middle of the famine,” said Tóibín.
In a statement to the PA news agency, Aontú said the highest council-owned home vacancy rate was in Cork City at 355, followed by Dublin City Council at 336, Fingal at 323 and Limerick and City Council at 315.
Tóibín remarked in the Dáil that the government is “paying nearly €600 million to house people in RAS (Rental Accommodation Scheme) and HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) homes while so many Local Authority homes are empty”.
In response, Tánaiste Simon Harris said he “agreed” with Tóibín that “council-owned homes can lie empty for far too long”.
Harris said the Government “intends to issue a circular to all local authorities to make it clear that health and safety should be the only grounds for the delay of the giving out of a local authority home, not the bells and whistles they sometimes go on with”.
Meanwhile, Tóibín claimed that the Government is “understating” both homelessness figures and the numbers of people on social housing waiting lists.
He said he asked all Local Authorities, via FOI requests, for the “number of homeless people that exist throughout the State” and that the current figure provided is 16,472.
The most recent figures released by the Government stood at 15,580.
“Your government is understating the number of homeless people in this state by 892 people currently,” said Tóbín.
He added that he also asked Local Authorities for the number of people on housing waiting lists and that the combined figure across the State that he received was 75,000.
The most recent official government figure is 58,824.
“Your ability to count the number of people who are on the housing waiting list at the moment is out by the population of Tullamore,” said Tóbín.
Tóbín asked if this was government “incompetence” or if it was “actually misleading the general public”.
In response, Harris said: “I hate to burst your ‘gotcha’ moment, but I’d suggest that you might wish to interrogate your numbers”.
Harris said there “can be duplications” and people “involved with more than one Local Authority”.
Meanwhile, Harris said that “this is what people do when they seek to be divisive, to try and dispute official figures”.
He added that these figures “aren’t calculated by government in a party political sense” and that they are calculated in a “robust, impartial manner”.
“If we could at least have the decency to respect the impartiality and robustness of those who gather statistics in Ireland, because if we start trying to erode belief in statistics, that’s part of a bigger agenda I think,” said Harris.
However, Tóbín said “you cannot be on two social housing lists simultaneously”.
“Either you’re incompetent and you’re not able to count the number of people who are actually on waiting lists at the moment, or you’re trying to hide the fact,” said Tóbín.
“The reason why I think you’re misleading the people is because you have previous on this.
“Right up to the jaws of the last general election, you were determined to give the impression that 40,000 homes were going to be built that year.
“As soon as that election was finished, it became very clear that that statement was wrong.
“This housing crisis is far too serious for misinformation,” said Tóibín.
The government has previously defended supplying the public with incorrect figures in the lead-up to the 2024 General Election, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin insisting that he and his party had not attempted to mislead the public with the inflated figures.
Harris replied by stating that “this is far too serious to engage in conspiracy theories”.
“You suggest I’m going around counting people here,” said Harris.
“The reality is we have robust, politically independent, impartial structures in our state.
“I want to know who in the public service you’re calling ‘incompetent’, it’s our public service and they do a bloody good job.”.
“I made the point in relation to the duplication regarding how you can report homelessness in more than one area and that didn’t suit you,” said Harris.
He added: “We’re working on trying to make progress – day in, day out, new ideas, big, bold decisions, every day to get to the 300,000 homes (by 2030).
“You’re just simply over there throwing brickbats and engaging in conspiracy theories.”
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