Over €770,000 paid to private landlords in Carlow to provide dwellings for social housing
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Over €770,000 has been paid to private landlords in Carlow since 2016 to provide dwellings for social housing, Carlow Live can reveal.
In a Parliamentary Question, Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Housing about the number of private houses that local authorities are renting and subletting as social housing by local authority.
He also asked about the annual cost of renting these houses in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019, by local authority.
Minister Eoghan Murphy provided details on the total number of operational dwellings provided under lease or availability agreements between private owners and local authorities from 2016 to the end of Quarter 2 of this year.
The figures revealed that Carlow County Council had 36 such dwellings in 2016; 39 in 2017; 42 last year and 41 in the first six months of 2019.
The data also revealed the total amount paid by the Council in respect of dwellings made available under lease or availability agreements between private owners and local authorities over the same period.
Carlow County Council paid €186,271 in 2016 to private landlords for such arrangements; €277,394 in 2017; €248,688 last year and €60,870 in the first half of 2019.
The total paid to private landlords since 2016 in Carlow amounts to €773,223.
Minister Murphy said: "The Government has set out an ambitious set of targets for the delivery of social housing in the period to 2021 in its Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan.
"A commitment to deliver 50,000 new social housing homes through a range of delivery mechanisms is being supported by a multi-annual Exchequer commitment totaling €6.5 billion over the period of the plan.
"These targets will be achieved using a combination of building, purchasing and leasing high quality properties to meet the needs of households on local authority waiting lists around the country."
He added: "Of the 50,000 social housing homes to be delivered under Rebuilding Ireland, 10,000 are targeted to be leased by local authorities and approved housing bodies under leasing arrangements from a range of different sources.
"The Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) supports this delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the leasing of houses and apartments.
"Dwellings under the scheme come from a number of different sources including private owners, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), Part V and the NAMA Special Purpose Vehicle (NARPS).
"Long term lease arrangements, including the enhanced lease, of privately owned dwellings can be entered into by either local authorities or AHBs.
"Under these arrangements the local authority or AHB acts as the landlord to the tenant.
"Local authorities may also enter into availability arrangements with private owners whereby an owner makes their property available to tenants of the local authority for a defined period.
"Under this type of arrangement, the owner of the property acts as the landlord to the tenant and performs all the landlord obligations."