Over €1.1 million in funding has been allocated to refurbish 78 Kerry County Council houses.
Once the works are completed, these houses will be reallocated to social housing tenants.
The funding was allocated under the 2021 voids programme and was announced by Minister for Housing and Local Government, Darragh O’Brien.
This funding will enable Kerry County Council to undertake remediation works to bring 78 properties in its housing stock back into use for re-letting.
Under the scheme the department will cover the cost of up to €11,000 per property for the refurbishment of standard vacant properties.
The department says it recognises that a small number of homes require significant investment to bring them back, and therefore local authorities can recoup an average of €50,000 per property for up to 10% of their vacant stock.
In Kerry, funding of €1,170,000 has been made available to the council to refurbish 70 standard units and eight non-standard units.
The announcement has been welcomed by Minister for Education Norma Foley and Deputy Government Chief Whip Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin.
Minister Norma Foley says housing is a key priority for Government and adds this money will provide a much-needed boost to local tradespeople carrying out these upgrades.
Meanwhile, Deputy Griffin says with the chronic shortage of housing it’s more important than ever to have vacant social housing refurbished and reallocated as quickly as possible.
