An investigation into irregularities at the country's biggest local authority has found numerous cases where procedures were deliberately breached in order to give council houses to certain individuals.

Documents obtained by the Sunday Tribune reveal that Dublin City Council housing designated for urgent medical priority cases have been given to tenants who simply did not qualify.

The investigation began in 2007 following the misallocation of a council house to a person who had not been awarded medical priority status and was completed earlier this year.

The findings have not been released publicly although calls will be made for a transparent and open probe at tomorrow evening's council meeting. In total, 50 files were inspected relating to the allocation of properties between 2007 and 2008, all of which were done under the 'medical priority' status.

Six cases of 'misallocation' were discovered following the probe, leading to concerns from council sources that the system is "rotten to the core".

The damning findings noted: "In all six cases the CMO (chief medical officer) either rejected the application for medical priority or did not adjudicate on the cases in question."

Only the CMO can decide whether or not an application warrants priority status. The probe was also established to examine the procedural process of the council's 'Anite' computer system which is used to track and process housing applications.

A council source has claimed that one member of staff is likely to be held accountable for the misallocations although it is believed that more senior members of staff are also involved.

In two of the cases, no official documentation could be found to show that they had even been referred to the CMO.

In another two, the words 'no priority awarded' were entered on the file even though the houses were still allocated.

In the final two cases, a staff member noted that medical priority was awarded. However the investigation notes: "The dates of the entries are inconsistent and do not substantiate that a decision was made by the CMO" to award medical priority housing.

It further notes that: "In all six cases the applicants' Anite records were amended by (a staff member) to indicate that they had been awarded OMP by the chief medical officer.

"Furthermore in one case [the same staff member] inserted incorrect information in the medical book.

"As a direct result… six applicants who had not been awarded overall medical priority by the CMO were placed on the medical priority list. Six properties were subsequently misallocated to these applicants by the city council on the basis that they had medical priority status."

A council source said: "The allocation system of housing has become entirely corrupted.

"There has been a culture of absolute disregard for the criteria around housing, particularly relating to urgent medical priority.

"There has been a system failure for allowing individuals to gain favour. It would appear that these individuals were obviously those who were housed without meeting the criteria and obviously those who enabled this to happen."

A document on the findings was circulated to a select audit committee last week although it was rejected as being scant on detail, much of which is outlined above. It is believed calls were made for more substantial information.

In one case an applicant was granted medical housing in 2006 because a file from 2003, in which the applicant had been refused medical priority, could not be found. It was later uncovered during the audit.

One of the cases investigated surrounded the allocation of medical priority to an applicant following representations from Labour TD Ruairi Quinn, although there is no suggestion Quinn was at fault or did anything inappropriate.

A detailed breakdown of that investigation found a member of staff had recorded that medical priority was awarded in the case even though no supporting documentation from medical officers could be found.

Tomorrow evening's meeting at Dublin City Council will hear a motion from independent councillor Mannix Flynn calling on the city manager to "initiate a full, open, transparent and independent inquiry into housing allocations protocols and procedures of Dublin City Council".

Flynn said his motion was a direct response to calls from a public disillusioned with the housing system.

"There has been an enormous amount of disquiet for a lot of years relating to housing allocation," he said.

"A lot of clients have been dissatisfied with how the housing list is run.

"There are people on the waiting list for an awfully long time with genuine medical conditions."