Government accused of understating Kildare's homeless figures and housing waiting list data

The Irish government is understating homeless figures and housing waiting list data, a County Kildare representative for Aontú rep has claimed.

Melissa Byrne, who is specifically her party's Newbridge LEA rep, told the Leader that her party had  secured statistics following the submission of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to each Local Authority.

According to Ms Byrne, in April of this year, there were 16,472 people in emergency homeless accommodation across Ireland. However, the official government homeless figures produced last month stood at 15,580.

She also separately claimed that the responses received from each Local Authority shows that there are 75,000 people on the housing waiting list in the country, which is over 16,000 more than what the government has been saying.

Speaking further on the data, Ms Byrne said that the apparent "inability to quantify the actual number of individuals on the housing waiting list and the number of vacant properties is incredibly concerning".

"How can the Government even attempt to plan for the future when they don’t have a clear grasp on what the actual figures are?" she asked. "The number of homeless has been underestimated by 892 people.

"Either we are being misled on the figures, or the government is unable to extract basic numerical data," Ms Byrne claimed.

Melissa Byrne of Aontú. Photo credit: Melissa Byrne - Aontú South Kildare / Facebook

She also spoke about housing figures in relation to Kildare: "We have over 6,000 on housing waiting lists in Kildare and only two days ago the vacant housing figures were said to be 120.

"We know based on these FOIs that this number is actually 139 vacant houses across the county. It may seem like a relatively small difference, but having this number of houses vacant during a housing crisis is absolutely scandalous."

Ms Byrne added: "The main concern here is that the government has been in place six months, and yet we haven’t seen a concrete and comprehensive long term plan to address homelessness in this country."

She then went on to raise her party’s policy on zeroing the VAT rate on construction materials.

"We know that a zero VAT rate on construction materials would take about €50,000 of the construction cost of a house," Ms Byrne asserted. "It would stimulate market activity and would take the financial burden off families trying to buy a home; such a step would also allow for social housing to be built at a lower cost to the state."

She concluded: "In the midst of a cost of living crisis the government took in €3 billion from VAT in the building sector, it’s time for their coffers to take a hit instead of always putting the burden back on people simply trying to find somewhere to live."

READ NEXT: Kildare funeral home plans to build Tea Station and Wake Room