A new Government programme offering incentives to older people to downsize is not enough to solve the housing crisis, according to a Tipperary spokesperson.
Richie Molloy of Family Carers Ireland said while the Housing for All initiative offers some benefits, safeguards for the elderly who would be giving up their homes would be needed.
While people downsizing would put bigger properties back on the market, Richie stressed that it wouldn’t solve the housing crisis.
He told Tipp FM that offering grants to do up vacant houses might be more viable.
“There’s a proposal to bring out a number of grants to refurbish dilapidated houses and right across the county, there’s houses in terrible disrepair – you know, maybe have been abandoned for years.
“That’s something we’d like to see – grants become more easily available to do up these dilapidated houses.
“Here in Family Carers Ireland, we do come across a lot of problems with older houses that are just not suitable for somebody with a disability – like a lack of downstairs bathrooms and the grant process is very, very slow at present.”
He added that there are many houses around Clonmel that have been empty for years and as well as being unsightly, they could be revamped and given a new lease of life, if funding was made available to people.
