Council spent €1.3 million on B&B accommodation in Westmeath last year

Westmeath County Council spent more than €1.3 million on providing emergency accommodation for the homeless in the county last year.

The local authority's €1,334,413 spend on B&B accommodation in 2024 was disclosed in response to a question from Cllr John Dolan at the June monthly meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District.

Cllr Dolan had sought details of the amount spent on B&Bs in the Athlone-Moate area, but was told that "B&B services in Westmeath support clients from across the county and are not specifically broken down by Municipal District."

The Fine Gael councillor asked if the B&Bs used were inspected by the local authority, "because some of them are not up to standard".

In response, Director of Services Jackie Finney said the council did not carry out inspections of B&Bs but that if someone had an issue with the standard of the accommodation they could bring it to the council's attention and it would then see if an alternative could be found.

She also said she was hopeful the 2025 spend on emergency B&B accommodation in Westmeath would be lower than it was last year.

According to the latest national figures, the number of people accessing emergency accommodation rose again in April of this year. The Department of Housing said 15,580 people were homeless in April, including 4,775 children.

This represented an increase of 1,571 in the course of a year, as 14,009 people were accessing emergency accommodation in April of 2024.