THE idea was raised by one councillor this week that tenants of Limerick City and County Council should have to pay a security deposit on their social housing accommodation to ensure no damage is done to their properties.
Speaking at a special Council meeting this Monday (April 7) to discuss available funding for the voids programme, frustrations were expressed by local representatives over the delays in turnaround time of refurbishing existing void properties.
Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey suggested the local authority consider increasing holding deposits from Council tenants who leave their homes “in an awful state”.
However, he was informed by senior engineer in the Council’s housing department, Brendan Kidney, that this would be a matter for the Community Sustainment Officer.
“We don’t take deposits from Council tenants,” Mr Kidney explained.
With up to 10 properties a month being returned to the Council as voids – and 113 currently awaiting minor refurbishments – Cllr Teskey called for a quicker advancement of empty Council-owned homes.
“In the private sector, in auctioneering circumstances, we take holding deposits so that if a tenant leaves a house in an uninhabitable state, you can secure that funding in order to prevent it from happening in some shape or form,” Cllr Teskey declared.
“When a person has to give over money, it gives them a responsibility to mind their things. You respect money when you have to pay it back, but by giving something to someone, they destroy it and break it.
“I’m hearing a lot of over and back today, and one would imagine that tenants left their properties in an awful, most desperate state. If they have, what is the penalty?”
Councillors were told at Monday’s meeting that the Council has a housing stock of 606,192 units, with issues arising regarding repair works on existing vacant stock due to a shortfall of funding.
“Back about 10 years ago, the department set up voids funding so there was funding available for properties that had needed over €100,000 to be spent on them. There was only maybe half a dozen given money – €50,000 per property – and then the rest were given €11,000 for under €100,000 of work,” Mr Kidney explained.
“That figure of €11,000 is there since 2014 and in that time construction inflation has gone up 114 per cent so the €11,000 isn’t worth what it used to be.”
Of the 113 voids on the Council’s books since January 2025, a total of 87 are eligible for government funding, but, according to Council management, the figure of €11,000 for retrofitting each unit, now actually costs an average €48,000.
“The deficit there is €1.5million and that’s based on an average referred cost of €48,000, which we’re working to reduce. It’s a challenge, to say the least,” Mr Kidney said.
Sinn Fein councillor Sharon Benson deemed the issue of voids a major problem and called on the Council to ask the government for more funding.
Cllr Benson also asked Mayor John Moran if there was anything his office could do to get the local authority more “autonomy” in dealing with this longstanding problem.
“It’s very unfair for people to see boarded up houses in their communities,” she opined.
Mayor Moran told the Council executive he was surprised that it can take so long to refurbish vacant properties and agreed that a review was needed to give members all the necessary information and to show where the longest delays are happening.
“One of the surprises that I have noticed in the system since coming in is that somebody can be in a perfectly reasonable house, but because the local authority is held to a higher standard, we’re actually required to do work,” Moran pointed out.
“An example was just given about slip tiles in a kitchen. I doubt there’s very many people in this room that have non-slip tiles in their kitchen, but that’s a big job to do and takes time.”
Mayor Moran was also of the view that more flexibility was needed in the middle of a housing crisis around rules from central government.
“It is an absolute scandal to be sitting looking at properties that are vacant in today’s world with thousands of people wanting to move in,” he concluded.
