Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 17 Dec 2003

Vol. 577 No. 4

Written Answers. - Rented Dwellings Register.

John Perry

Ceist:

279 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government the number of properties that have been registered by landlords in the local authority in County Sligo; and the number of local authority dwellings in County Sligo which are currently uninhabited in which local authority homes are boarded up and remain derelict for a period of time. [31498/03]

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. N. Ahern)

The following table, based on returns from the local authorities, sets out the most recent information on the number of houses registered by landlords, in each local authority area in County Sligo.

Local Authority	Number of houses registered at June 2003
Sligo County Council	24
Sligo Borough Council	176
Total	200

Local authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of their rented dwellings, including the control of vacant local authority dwellings. The most recent figures available to my Department from the local authorities concerned indicate that a total of 29 dwellings, provided by Sligo County Council and Sligo Borough Council, were vacant, at the end of December 2002; ten of these were de-tenanted for planned refurbishment.

My Department does not have information as to particular reasons for the balance of the dwellings being vacant. Vacancies occur on an ongoing basis where dwellings require renovations or improvements to bring them up to an acceptable standard before re-letting. However, local authorities are encouraged to ensure that, once a dwelling becomes vacant, it is re-let as quickly as possible to a household on the waiting list.