Dublin City Council is to prioritise the use of empty homes to house homeless individuals and families.

Housing and homeless charity, Peter McVerry Trust, welcomed the announcement which is part of the Government's new Repair and Leasing scheme.

Pat Doyle, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Peter McVerry Trust, said: "It is very encouraging that Dublin City Council, in its correspondence to housing associations, has made clear that they plan to prioritise the use renovated empty homes to meet the needs of individuals and families currently in emergency accommodation. This is something that Peter McVerry Trust has been advocating for and something that we are glad to see reflected in Dublin City Council's plans. We certainly hope that other local authorities will now follow this course of action.

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"Empty Homes is an area which we have been working on for some time. We will launch the latest in a long line of empty homes projects in Dublin city centre in a few weeks' time. That will bring our total of empty homes to 50 in the last two years. Our experience to date has shown that these empty buildings, of which there are thousands across the country, offer cost effective and speedy opportunities to provide high quality homes for people in need."

(CD/LM)