Donegal TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has spoken out about the high number of vacant properties in Donegal at a time when there is an unprecedented housing crisis.
He revealed that 7,700 properties are currently vacant in the county or about 10% of the overall housing stock. There are 2,646 families on the housing list in Donegal.
The Sinn Fein TD said: “Like every county in Ireland, Donegal is enduring a housing crisis due to the failure to build new council homes for over a decade or to purchase and renovate enough of the large number of vacant houses to be deployed as public housing for families on the housing list.
“It really is shocking that 7,700 or 10% of our housing stock in Donegal is left vacant at a time like this, with so many families waiting for a secure home over their heads”.
“A serious knock-on effect of this failure is that almost 2,000 families in Donegal have been pushed into the private rental sector under the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and now rents are sky high across Donegal and North Donegal in particular.
“When you add on the defective block disaster in Donegal, we have the perfect storm.
“The government needs to get serious about this and properly resource Donegal County Council to turn around vacant houses. We need a huge increase in public housing across Donegal over the next number of years and the 7,700 vacant houses in the county can play a big role in that challenge”.
