'Breathtaking' amount of money needed for Laois council housing

More than €740 million would have to be spent Laois and Offaly to house everyone on council housing waiting lists in both counties, according to figures provided by a local TD.

Independent TD Carol Nolan provided the figure to highlight the scale of what she said is the current and future housing emergency in Laois and Offaly after an analysis by the Oireachtas Parliamentary Budget Office on the number of households eligible for, but not yet in receipt of social housing estimated the combined costs for both counties as €742.5 million for both counties.

Dep Nolan said the analysis is based the costs on what it would take to house the number of households on the social housing waiting lists plus households in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

She said that the cost for Laois County Council would be €404,159,521 while a total of €338,360,562 would have to be spent to clear the Offaly County Council list.

“The data released by the PBO is breathtaking in terms of the magnitude of the emergency we are facing,” said Deputy Nolan.

“The PBO itself now estimates that there were 115,425 households nationwide with an ‘ongoing need’ for permanent, state-supported housing at the end of 2023 which will cost approximately €34.95 billion to build.

“Alarmingly the PBO also estimates that at end-2023 there was a minimum of 235,659 people (4.4% of the total population) making up the households with an ongoing need including an estimated 92,116 dependent children. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Pictured: Carol Nolan TD.

“It is absolutely clear that we are a critical juncture in terms of housing and accommodation and unless new and innovative solutions are implemented immediately the crisis will continue to get worse.

“We have already seen this week how rising population levels are outstripping supply by a ratio of 4 to 1. That combined with a decades old and dysfunctional planning system mired in bureaucratic red tape is destroying the capacity of entire generations to own their own home or even access a roof over their head,” Dep Nolan concluded.

A recent Laois County Council meeting heard that there are 1,627 applicants in total waiting for a house in the county. Of these 688 are on HAP in privately rented houses.