Vol. 436 No. 4
29 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for the Environment if, in view of the chronic housing shortage and the increasing number of approved applicants on waiting lists, he will introduce a special housing scheme whereby local authorities could actively pursue the purchase of the large number of abandoned but habitable homes, especially in rural Ireland.
Housing authorities are already permitted to acquire existing dwellings as part of their housing programmes. Indeed, under the Plan for Social Housing local authorities are required, in planning their programmes, to consider systematically the option of purchasing existing houses — even those in need of improvement — as opposed to new building. Local authorities have again been reminded of this in the context of this year's major expansion of their housing programmes and, while definitive figures are not yet available, there is evidence that there has been a considerable increase in the number of houses purchased by local authorities this year.
