It’s taking Dublin city council two years on average to turn around vacant homes for new tenants.
A new report by the Local Government Audit service says there were 5,000 vacant social housing units nationally at the end of December, just before the pandemic.
It says the turnaround time in Dublin City was 104 weeks. As of December 31st, DCC had 26,150 properties on it's books, with 703 of them vacant.
349 of the units were due for regeneration or demolition. When these homes were excluded the average time vacant was 24.5 weeks.
Meanwhile Sligo County Council was the worst, with an average turnaround time of 139 weeks. It was 63 weeks on average in Cork City and 53 in Cork County.
Dublin city councillor Nial Ring is disputing the figures;
"It doesn't actually take Dublin city council that length of time. In fact as of last May a report to the city council is showing it's taking an average of 18 weeks."
The total number of vacant properties nationally was 4,754. The average level of vacancy was 3.44%. The lowest level was 1.08% in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
