71 previously vacant houses were fully refurbished in Laois in 2020, latest figures show.
€675,592 was spent in the county by the Department for Housing, Local Government and Heritage last year.
This was done under the Voids Stimulus Programme and €56.4m was spent to bring a total of 3,607 vacant homes back into productive use within the social housing stock.
This represents the highest ever yearly spend and the highest number of homes to be refurbished under the voids programme.
Laois County Council confirmed that the houses were used to take people off of the housing waiting list.
Welcoming, the news, Green Party Minister Pippa Hackett said that with Covid slowing
She said: “We need to tackle our housing waiting lists so it’s good to see 77 vacant houses in Laois were brought back into the Council’s housing stock.
“Covid has slowed down the construction of social housing, so we can’t afford to leave houses lying idle while people are waiting for homes. I welcome this news.”
Meanwhile, speaking at this month’s Laois County Council meeting, Director of Services Joe Delaney, provided a positive update on the homelessness situation in Laois.
He said: “We have managed the homelessness situation well here.
“We managed to find permanent accommodation for 20 homeless families which was a great relief to all of them.
“We currently only have five homeless individuals in the county.
“And each of them are being housed in temporary accommodation around the county.”
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