Building workers on the Elsmore housing estate at Naas, Co Kildare, which includes social housing Source: Eamonn Farrell/Rollingnews.ie

THE DEPARTMENT OF Housing says that provisional figures for the year up until 11 June 2018 show a marked drop in the number of people on the social housing list.

The two Fine Gael ministers at the department, Eoghan Murphy and Damien English, say that as at that date 71,858 were on the list waiting for social accommodation, a reduction of 13,941 from the same date in 2017.

Representing a 16.2% decrease on the figure as per the previous year’s assessment, English claims the figures as “a positive sign of the success of the Rebuilding Ireland Actions Plan so far”.

That suggests that the overall figure has dropped by 22% since June 2016, or by 91,600 to 71,858.

Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy Source: Graham Seely/Rollingnews.ie

The latest report, viewable here, states that more than 43% of the current list, or just under 31,000, are accounted for by Dublin’s four local authorities.Meanwhile, single-person households account for 47% of the entire list.

The median waiting time for a household on the list is four years and two months, while the median age of applicants is between 30 and 39 years.

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All local authorities, except Counties Cavan and Monaghan, saw their list numbers fall.

More than 50% of those on the list are unemployed.

The publication of the latest figures represents something of a good news story for the government, and in particular its embattled Housing Minister, who last night survived a vote of no confidence in him tabled by Sinn Féin in the Dáil.

It could be a short-lived reprieve however – tomorrow sees the release of the latest national average rental figures courtesy of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).