Local authorities have been slammed after it was revealed they are sitting on over 2,600 vacant housing units in Ireland instead of putting them into use.

The figures were obtained by Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Environment and Local Government Barry Cowen through a series of Freedom of Information requests to each local authority.

Deputy Cowen commented: "It is sickening to think that there are a massive number of vacant housing units owned by Local Authorities sitting idle. This is at a time when social housing waiting lists are at historic highs and emergency homeless shelters are running out of space to accommodate the escalating crisis.

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"Minister Alan Kelly is continually trying to reassure the public that he has a plan for dealing with the housing crisis. However the huge number of vacant housing units across the country shows that no such joint up plan exists. The Minister is out of touch with the public considering his lacklustre response to the housing crisis to date. His lack of action is inexcusable.

"The Minister's bluff has been called following the publication of these figures. His plan for tackling the housing crisis is not working and it is time he admitted this. The figures we obtained show that, as of August, there are 424 vacant housing units in Cork City alone. Other Local Authorities with a large numbers of vacant housing units include Cork County (268), Dublin City (258), Kerry (136), Roscommon (113), Sligo (121) and Wexford (90).

"These figures make it apparent just how completely inadequate the refurbishment funding allocated to local authorities has been. While there are over 2612 housing units lying vacant, the Minister made the disastrous decision to cut refurbishment funding available to local authorities. The cut amounted to a staggering €6.15m this year alone."

(CD/LM)