Sligo landlords paid 7.5m by County Council last year

Sligo County Council figures show the authority paid landlords €7.5m in 2025 under the Housing Assistance Payment, Rental Accommodation Scheme, and Long Term Social Housing Leasing Scheme. The payments included €4.5m under HAP, €2.3m under RAS, and almost €0.5m under LTSHLS. The spending was criticised as a transfer of public money to private landlords rather than investment in local authority housing. The criticism also linked these subsidies to national costs, stating that payments to private landlords exceed €1bn nationwide. The argument claims the state relies on these schemes instead of funding a realistic public housing building programme.

"The details contained in this report again confirms a familiar pattern: huge sums of public money are being funnelled into the pockets of private landlords, rather than being invested in local authority housing. The report indicates that last year this Council paid landlords over €4.5 million under the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), in addition to €2.3 million under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and almost a half a million Euro under the Long Term Social Housing Leasing Scheme. A total of almost €7.5 million. This is a massive transfer of public money to the private sector."

"When you multiply this by the state's continued reliance on these subsidies, we are looking at well over €1 billion paid out nationwide to corporate landlords and speculators. "While the Government suggests it cannot afford a realistic public house-building programme, it has no hesitation in spending over a billion euro annually on private schemes that offer no long-term value to the State."

Read at Irish Independent