Clare County Council last year more doubled its legal spend in its work in the courts seeking repossession of council homes from tenants.
New figures provided by the Council show that the legal spend of €52,530 last year on repossessions follows a spend of €22,355 in 2024 under the same heading – a rise of 135pc.
In relation to the €52,530 legal spend on repossessions in 2025 a council spokeswoman said that “some costs pertain to cases initiated prior to 2025, and which are still ongoing”.
She said that the increased legal costs in 2025 “includes costs associated with a case in 2024 which was further challenged via High Court with high costs associated as a result and the 2025 costs therefore reflect this”.
On the legal spend on repossessions in 2024, the spokeswoman said that “some costs pertain to cases initiated prior to 2024”.
The Council spokeswoman said that in 2025 “we sought 11 evictions- four in relation to anti-social behaviour (ASB) and seven in relation to rents arrears”.
The spokeswoman said that in 2024 “we sought six evictions, one in relation to ASB and five in relation to rent arrears”.
Asked the number of Council tenants evicted from their Council homes in 2025, the spokeswoman said there were no evictions in 2025.
She said: “A number of cases were resolved without need for eviction and seven are still ongoing.”
The spokeswoman said that “Clare County Council prefers to resolve issues without proceeding to court and in most cases this approach is successful”.
The spokeswoman said that the Council “may proceed to seek repossessions where there is no engagement from tenants or no sign of resolution through alternative means.
She said: “When the council receives complaints from neighbours, we use processes available in our Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) policy. Only a very small number of complaints finish up in court, and the level of ASB is hugely high in these cases.
The Council spokeswoman said that numbers of Council tenants are published monthly across a range of categories and at the end of March there were 3,419 households across local authority homes, Rent Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and leased properties.
