Council housing maintenance and rent costs hit almost €20 million in Laois
The second biggest spend in Laois County Council's 2022 budget of €88.4 million is €19.75 million for social housing.
The housing budget has jumped by €4 million from the 2021 housing spend.
The fund is used for maintaining council homes, rent schemes and home loans, and is separate to capital grants given to build houses.
Almost €9 million will be spent on the RAS and HAP schemes which supplement the cost for tenants of renting private homes.
There will be €4.22m spent in maintaining and improving the council's 2,253 social homes, up by nearly €1m.
Seven new house maintenance staff have been hired to speed up repairs on existing council homes including a plumber, electrician and apprentices.
There is €728k allocated for homeless services, €1.75m for housing loans and €2.409m for housing adaptation grants.
The Council CEO John Mulholland said that providing new housing remains a top priority.
“The housing programme is on target to deliver 1,092 homes in the 2016 to 2021 period, well in excess of targets set by the Dept of Housing. At the current rate, it is expected to deliver 612 new homes over the next two years,” he said.
The biggest area of spending in the council's 2022 budget will be roads at €23m.