Almost 700 derelict homes and 284 people on housing list in Leitrim
Leitrim councillor says that rural schools will close and areas will become ‘non-viable’ for people to live
There are 674 derelict homes in Leitrim and 284 people on the Social Housing Waiting List in the county, a report by RTÉ Investigates has found.
Neighbours Sligo had 1110 while Roscommon had 1209 and Longford had 456.
Meanwhile there are seven derelict sites recorded in Leitrim.
Speaking to the Leitrim Observer, Cllr Justin Warnock said that he believed there are even more derelict houses in Leitrim. “In Kiltycloghter, I counted 30 derelict houses.”
He added: “Every day of the week, I’m meeting young people coming back from Australia and young couples who are here and it’s impossible to get property. “
RTÉ Investigates analysed national and local authority data, alongside on-the-ground reporting to understand the true scale of dereliction and how it is being managed.
The research found that as of Q2 2025, GeoDirectory, which is owned by An Post and Tailte Éireann, found that there were close to 20,000 derelict housing units in the country but only 2,300 entries on the local authority registers.
Cllr Warnock said that he felt “incentives need to be brought in for owners to do up these old houses and rent them out. I was talking to a woman on the housing list and she received her notice to quit because the people need the house back for a family member. People say that a house is just lying idle but you can’t just let people into a house without major works being carried out and has to be fit for purpose.”
Cllr Warnock continued that the Croí Cónaithe grant is a “great scheme” but added “it will take the full grant of €70,000 plus more” to bring most properties into use.
He stressed: “I think the government should increase the grant for young couples rather than put them on the rental market.”
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Cllr Warnock went on to say that “there are lots of houses in the area being done up” before adding that house prices are now so high that they are out of most young people’s price range, even with two incomes. “There are a lot of young people out there and the maximum mortgage they are going to get is €200,000 but houses are now up at €400,000.”
RTÉ Investigates calculated the GeoDirectory housing dereliction data against CSO housing stock to provide an approximate housing dereliction rate which found that housing dereliction is generally worse in the west than the East.
Under the Derelict Sites Act, local authorities can impose an annual levy of 7% of a site's market value, which is intended to encourage owners to bring properties back into use or put them up for sale. But applying the levy is optional.
Department of Housing data for 2021 to 2024 shows that while most councils used the levy as an enforcement tool, six, including Leitrim, Cavan, Donegal, Fingal, Longford and Monaghan did not levy any registered properties during that period.
The same data also highlights difficulties in collecting the levy once it is imposed. Across the State, local authorities imposed around €25m in derelict sites levies between 2021 and 2024, yet recovered just over €3m, around 13% of the total owed.
Cllr Warnock concluded: “It would be great to see more houses come on stream in Leitrim because there are schools in Leitirm . I think that the Western Development Commission should come into a place like Kiltycloghter and other small towns and villages and lease the derelict houses off people and do them up. For the owners of houses living abroad, the houses may not be in their name and they may not be able to afford to do them up.”
He warned: “There are rural schools in Leitrim that will close and then the area becomes non-viable because parents don’t want to have to put them in the car for everything and have no school bus passing the house.”