Council returned eight vacant units in Carlow to the housing stock last year under Voids Programme
They received over €90,000 in funding to do so
Carlow County Council returned eight vacant units in the county to the housing stock last year under the Government's Voids Programme and were given €91,750 in funding to do so.
Fianna Fail's John Curran asked the Minister for Housing for the number of vacant units returned to the housing stock for each local authority in 2017 and the amount of funding allocated to each local authority for the same.
In a written response, Minister Eoghan Murphy said: "Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966 provides that the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock is a matter for each individual local authority.
"The Voids Programme, introduced in 2014 by my Department, provides additional support to local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-letting. The purpose of the Voids Programme is to ensure that vacant units are actively targeted, with a view to minimising the turnaround and re-let time of these units and return them to use in an energy efficient condition.
"During 2017, my Department provided €24,698,067 to local authorities to enable them to bring 1,757 vacant properties back to productive use.
"Without substantial refurbishment under construction contracts, these social homes would have been left vacant and in turn would not be part of the active social housing stock."