There were 171 empty council homes in Donegal at the end of the first six months of this year, one of the highest rates outside of the large population centres.
Nationally, more than 3,500 lie vacant, according to new figures seen by RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
It comes as the State’s 31 councils have over 95,000 people on their housing waiting lists with over 70,0000 people availing of the Housing Assistance Payment and Rental Accommodation Scheme.
The vacant council figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act to Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Mr Tóibín said: “It is incredible that in the jaws of a national emergency in terms of housing that well over 3,000 local authority homes are lying empty tonight.
“There are enough empty local authority homes in the State to house well over half the number of people who are homeless”.
He said he blamed the State, the Department and the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien for this.
Read the full report on www.rte.ie
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