DUBLIN City Council's housing department has reported a massive surge in council house maintenance re­quests as cash-strapped tenants make full use of the department for even the smallest of repairs.

In 2002, the department received 36,798 repair requests. Figures for December 2008 show this figure to have climbed to 60,496.

After the number of repair requests hit a record high, senior executive officer
Vincent Healy ordered a review in which he concluded that tighter restrictions will now be put in place.

He said: "In light of the current economic situation, and given the financial constraints within which the council must operate, housing maintenance will be applying a more rigorous check to decide the validity of the repair requests it receives and will carry out."

According to Healy, some tenants availing of the service were also already considerably in arrears.

The internal review also stated that some of the repairs being carried out are not part of the maintenance service as tenants demand even the most minor of repairs, including fixing faulty gates and doorknobs, pest control and other miscellaneous dem­ands.

But Sinn Féin spokesman on housing Aengus Ó
Snod­aigh has called on the council to re-examine the crackdown as he fears tenants might be forced to live in "substandard conditions due to financial hardship".

The assessment also revealed that 732 houses are currently lying empty across Dublin. A spokesman claimed that the housing units are in the process of being re-allocated.

"Of the 732 vacancies, 400 are currently being re-allocated and 332 are being re-furbished," he said.

Labour's housing spokes­man Ciarán Lynch said that local authorities are failing in their re-allocations as the waiting list for housing in Ireland continues to grow. "There are 40,000 people waiting to be allocated on the housing list, and some have been waiting as long as two years.

"This is a growing problem and the only way it is going to be resolved is if the government starts employing real and proper protocols to ensure that those on waiting lists get referred immediately as this current situation is not acceptable."