BY JEROME HUGHES
TAXPAYERS have paid €46 million on the maintenance of council houses across Donegal, including €3.3m to paint exterior walls.
The expenditure relates to the period 2019-2023.
Donegal County Council currently owns 5,317 houses and apartments, occupied by those who don’t have the means to purchase their own property.
In addition, the council manages 1,655 Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) tenancies.
Figures released by the council show its ‘Voids Programme’ has taken up the lion’s share of the budget, costing €12.2m.
Voids aims to minimise the turnaround and re-let time of vacant council houses. 649 units benefited from this programme in the 5-year period.
415 units were improved under the council’s Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme, at a cost of €10.3m.
The remainder of the €46.1m spent can be accounted for by disability grants, extensions, new boilers, windows and doors.
In the period 2019 to 2023, the council received 22,609 individual repair requests from social housing tenants.