Laois County Council shines in housing audit
Laois County Council has one of the best track records getting new tenants into vacated council homes
A new audit has shown Laois County Council has outperformed many other local authorities in managing its stock of social housing.
The strong performance is revealed by the latest annual report from the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC). It was established in July 2014 under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 to provide independent oversight of the local government sector.
It says its latest Local Authority Performance Indicator Report, published on September 17, is an independent assessment of local authority performance across Ireland in 2025. The report examines 129 datasets across 46 indicators covering 11 key areas. It says the audit highlights how local authorities are performing in delivering services and supporting communities nationwide.
County Hall appears to measure up well in social housing, especially in the management of housing vacancies.
The audit finds that Laois has one of the shortest turnaround times for reletting council houses to new tenants. Laois relets on average after 16 weeks. This contrasts to Kerry, where the council takes over 66 weeks to relet homes. Neighbouring Kildare County Council has a turnaround time of just short of a year.
“Some, such as Monaghan, Laois and Sligo, have achieved relatively short re-letting times, demonstrating what is possible through effective local management,” found the report.
This translates into one of the lowest vacancy rates, 1.3%, in Ireland.
“Low vacancy rates are a welcome outcome and demonstrate the substantial commitment that local authorities make by managing their stock efficiently,” comments the report.
Laois County Council also managed to run up one of the lowest average bills for getting houses ready for new tenants. On average, Laois spent €19,041.42 across the 79 homes relet in 2026. This contrasts with Kildare, where the local authority spent, on average, €56,927.58 on reletting 83 homes last year.
Average spending during 2025 on the maintenance of Laois council houses was €1,127.93. This was lower than many other counties but not at the bottom of the table.
The figures show progress in Laois in terms of adding new housing stock for people in need of social housing. Laois County owned 2,488 social homes at the end of 2024. A further 76 dwellings were added to the local authority-owned stock during 2025 either through construction or via acquisition. Three council houses were sold in Laois last year. This meant that 2,561 homes were owned by the council at the start of this year.
The report also carries figures on the number of adults in emergency accommodation who are long-term homeless as a percentage of the total number of homeless adults in emergency accommodation. Laois had one of the lowest rates at 23.26%. Offaly had an equivalent rate of 64.38%, with Carlow coming in at 57%.