Galway City Council should tackle the number of vacant homes around the city through the use of compulsory purchase orders, a city councillor said.
Councillor Alan Cheevers said that the council should use CPOs on vacant properties in order to add stock for people on waiting lists for housing.
“I believe it’s time to act now, and to penalize the landlords who have left houses vacant for a long period.”
“I believe it not acceptable that it is taking so long for Galway City to Compulsory Purchase some of these long term vacant properties,” Alan Cheevers said.
He cited the example of Louth County Council, which has led the country in recent years in the use of CPOs to acquire vacant properties and bring them back into use.
Councillor Cheevers also said that the site of the Corrib Great Southern Hotel, where demolition works have been delayed, could also be used for accommodation on the east side of the city if it was CPO’ed.
Demolition works were due to begin at the long derelict former hotel on the Dublin Road last December, but were delayed due to COVID-19.
