Sinn Féin Councillor, Kathleen Funchion has accused the government of bailing out private landlords while closing revenue streams for local authorities.
Sinn Féin received a response to a parliamentary question which has revealed that the number of people in receipt of rent supplement is up nearly 15 per cent since this time last year, rising from 83,000 to 95,000 recipients.
Cllr Funchion said that the Government is bailing out private landlords while local authorities don’t have the money to fix up the empty dwellings in their own housing stocks.
“This week while engaging in constituency work I came across nine boarded up houses in one particular estate in Kilkenny city. This is at a time when we have so many people on the housing waiting lists. The government policy makes no sense. At a time when estates are sitting empty, wouldn't it be better if the 95,000 households on rent supplement were paying rent to cash starved local authorities for these empty houses?” she said.
