An East Cork TD says it's not good enough that Cork County Council has only one Vacant Housing Officer to deal with vacant and derelict properties.
Across the country, only one local authority has more than one Vacant Housing Officer.
Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien confirmed that no council has applied for funding to hire more.
The Irish Examiner reports, while Cork County Council has only one Vacant Housing Officer, it does have a dedicated Vacant Homes Unit which employs the equivalent of five full time staff.
A spokesperson for Cork County Council told RedFM News that a dedicated Vacant Homes Unit fulfils a similar role.
Speaking to RedFM News, Deputy David Stanton says that the vacant properties problem need full-time attention:
"What I want to see happening here is people appointed, personnel appointed, to do this job on a full-time basis, not part-time equivalents with 10 other jobs as well. We want to see these people actually appointed who have the expertise and the knowledge to go out there and have no other job to do. Think of the size of Cork County - it's huge. And in order to make any impression at all, we would need a lot more people working on this full time. It's just a matter at this stage of putting a lot of energy into it, and get working on it, as a matter of urgency".
