Calls have been made for a plan to be put in place to deal with vacant houses in Clare as Cabinet Ministers have been briefed on a package of measures to alleviate the housing crisis.
58 council-owned houses, many of which are in need of refurbishment, are lying idle in Clare, while more than half of NAMA's housing stock in the county is unoccupied.
Figures outlined in correspondence sent by the National Asset Management Agency to the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee show that 101 houses or apartments owned by NAMA are in Clare.
Of those, a total of 54 are completed but vacant.
Separately, 58 council-owned houses, many of which are in need of refurbishment are lying idle at a time when over 3,000 people are on the housing list in this county.
Clare TD Timmy Dooley is calling of the Government to continue the plan of leasing units from the private sector and to develop an action plan to deal with vacant houses in need of refurbishment.
The Fianna Fáil TD believes the high number of vacant houses in the county would go a long way towards solving the housing crisis in Clare but he says a delay in funding is part of the problem:
Scarriff-based TD Deputy Michael Mc Namara says no-one wants to see vacant houses in the county or elsewhere in the county.
But the Labour Deputy says the solution to the problem isn't always simple:
Cabinet Ministers were briefed this morning on a package of measures to alleviate the housing crisis and the Public Expenditure Minister insists the state of the housing market is one of the damning legacies of Ireland's economic collapse.
Brendan Howlin said he thinks some of those measures, like rent certainty, will be provided almost straight away.
However he warned that the Government must strike a balance between fixing the current situation and creating another housing boom
