Longford Councillor says, "Give us money to tackle housing"

A councillor has heavily criticised the Government for "dragging their heels" and not providing essential funding for the retrofitting of 53 vacant council houses in county Longford.

Long serving Fine Gael representative Peggy Nolan said it is "completely unacceptable" in the midst of a housing crisis and while record numbers of children and families are homeless.

She stated the council gets €11,000 per house for retrofitting the local authority homes, but it is costing €60,000, leaving the council with a €49,000 shortfall.

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"Can you imagine, that is coming out of our budget and we have been waiting to be reimbursed by the Government, which we haven't to date," the frustrated politician added.

Cllr Nolan estimates that hundreds have been retrofitted to date and the council has faced a big shortfall.

"This is a Government that's crying that they need to turn around houses, they are telling people they have permission to build livable sheds for want of a better word in their back garden and here they have a solution that right across the country is an issue," she added.

The Energy Efficiency/Retrofitting Programme (EERP) was launched in 2013 and it aims to retrofit a local authority home to a BER of B2/Cost Optimal Equivalent.

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The programme was revised in 2021 in light of Programme for Government commitments.

Cllr Nolan insisted the 83 houses in county Longford could be ready quickly if the funding was provided and it does not make sense "economically or on a human basis" for them to be lying idle.

"Give us the money and we will bring them on stream as quickly as possible, but we have to be very careful because we have to live within our budgets.

"We are doing the best we can with limited resources that we have in house and the Government is at fault because they are leaving us short.

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"The Minister (for Housing) when he is traveling around the different counties, he will be told and the department are getting letters regularly from councillors who are lobbying the Government to give us the money," she added.

Cllr Nolan said they have not done so over the past number of years and it is getting to a 'serious' situation but they "seem to be dragging their heels".