Repairs urged on ‘void’ houses

Councillors have urged Tipperary County Council to expedite repairs to empty local authority houses in the Nenagh Municipal District so they can be used to accommodate people facing the threat of homelessness.

Speaking at the November meeting of the district authority, Cllr Michael O’ Meara said he was frustrated at the level of empty houses that needed repairs before they could be occupied by people in desperate need of housing.

He said there seemed to be “a go-slow” by the council on carrying out repairs to houses.

District Administrator, Rosemary Joyce, said the council was very concerned at the number of properties in its housing stock that needed repairs. A huge amount of work had been done on those type of houses – known as voids – last year. But the rate of work had slowed down this year due to staffing issues. A technician was being taken on to fill a vacancy and an improvement in the situation was imminent.

Cllr Ger Darcy said it would make a huge difference if the 21 void properties on the council’s list in the district were made ready for habitation. He said he was disappointed the works on these properties would not be carried out until next year. “That’s a hell of a number of houses that would solve a lot of problems if they were made habitable,” he said.

Cllr Joe Hannigan said he had two people making representations to him that had been issued with a notice to quit by a private landlord. Improvements on the void properties needed to happen so that people like this were not made homeless.