Laois County Council returns to directly employing carpenters, plumbers, electricians

Carpenters, plumbers and electricians are back on the payroll of Laois County Council as the local authority moves away from contracting and back to employing its own tradespeople. 

However one Laois councillor has criticised tenants for not doing minor repairs themselves on their rental properties.

Laois County Council now has a crew of nine direct labour workers to maintain its social housing stock. It recently hired two more electricians and a plumber.

It will spend an extra €130,000 in 2026, up to €6.142 million including administration costs. 

They carry out on average 97 jobs a week. In the past four years, they have done over 19,000 repair jobs, at a cost of €7.8 million.

In 2024 the council also hired a team of five tradespeople especially to repair and upgrade vacated council houses for reletting to new tenants.

The team has fixed up and turned around 306 vacated council homes, at a cost of €6.3 million in the past four years.

One councillor is critical of tenants who leave it to the council staff to do repairs.

Independent Cllr Ben Brennan from the Graiguecullen Portarlington Municipal District spoke at the October council meeting.

"What's happening with the rules of tenancy? Are they not responsible for inside their doors?

"I remember when I was canvassing, [a tenant said] 'oh I'm waiting for the council to come out and do this'. It was a simple thing, a handle off a door of a press. I'd have fixed it in two minutes myself. I felt like saying 'you're after getting a house, now you won't maintain it'.

"Everyone should be made maintain their own house. If they don't they shouldn't be left in it, that's how I feel," Cllr Brennan said.

Cllr Paschal McEvoy said that when he first became a councillor in 2014, "it was an awful job to try and get maintenance done on any house".

"I haven't had a problem with maintenance on houses in four or five years. That's a massive improvement," he said.

Read also: Laois County Council saving up to replace 'ageing' snow trucks

Laois County Council currently has about 2,700 social homes and is building nearly 300 more in 2026. 

It is the number one local authority for the delivery of new social housing, and will reach over 200% of the Housing For All target set for Laois by the end of 2026, building nearly 1,200 homes in five years. 

It is also the top of the list for the fastest turnaround times of empty units, and has the lowest number of empty housing units of any county.

There are over 1,400 names on the Laois social housing waiting list.