More than 97 homes in Donegal have been unoccupied for more than three months while over 500 remain on the housing list, it was revealed on Monday.
There have now been calls for Donegal County Council to speed up its housing allocation process after receiving confirmation that 32 houses in the Inishowen peninsula have been vacant for more than three months – despite 588 families remaining in housing need across the county.
Commenting on the figures, Cllr Jack Murray said: “Despite the crisis in housing in Donegal, 97 council houses have remained unoccupied for more than three months – with, by far, the largest allocation of those being in Inishowen.
“The level of housing need in Inishowen is a massive 588. Given that most of those applicants are families, it means that thousands of citizens are affected.
“Therefore it is unacceptable that 32 houses can lie vacant while people are crying out for them.
“So I am calling on Donegal County Council to make every effort to turn around houses once they become vacant and allocate them to families in need.
“Every effort we take to help families off the housing list will have a positive and lifelong impact.”
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