State properties should be made available to local authorities to address the housing crisis, Independent TD Clare Daly has told the Dáil.

“It is an incredible contradiction that the State, which expends hundreds of millions of euro on subsidising private and emergency accommodation, continues to be one of the largest landlords,” she said.

Ms Daly said the Office of Public Works (OPW) had properties in every town and village.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said the OPW managed a large and diverse property portfolio, ranging from office accommodation to heritage properties, visitor centres and Garda stations, among others. The majority of vacant properties were recently closed Garda stations, with the remainder consisting of properties such as customs posts, former coastguard stations and sundry other properties.

Alternative use

In the first instance, Mr Howlin said, the OPW engaged with other public-service bodies, including relevant local authorities, to establish the potential for alternative use in advance of deciding on disposal. This included the potential for those properties to be made available to meet social housing needs.

Mr Howlin said the OPW had agreed to make a number of properties available to the Housing Agency. The OPW had recently made a property available to the Dublin Region Homeless Executive.

Task force

Ms Daly said many more properties must be provided for the homeless, adding a task force should be set up to look into the matter. “There are many unemployed builders who could be used to remediate these properties and make them suitable for housing purposes which would be a far more sensible approach than subsidising the private sector.’’

Mr Howlin said there was not a huge array of available properties or properties suitable for housing in the OPW. Some 440 properties were deemed habitable, with the majority occupied by members of An Garda Síochána and, therefore, not available for letting. There were others in the heritage portfolio, such as caretaker lodges, and not available.

Independent TD Mick Wallace said there were serious problems, not just with the lack of supply of social housing, but also in the supply of private housing, and how the construction industry and developers operated through land banking. For all practical purposes, that sector had gone unregulated, he added.