More than 1,500 social housing offers were refused across the country last year.
New figures obtained by Newstalk show there have been at least 7,693 refusals since 2019 in 20 local authorities.
Dublin has the highest proportion of applicants declining an offer, followed by Co Kildare and Co Louth.
At least 420 people have been suspended from their waiting lists for refusing more than one offer.
On a county-wide basis, Dublin had the highest proportion - with some 3,835 refusals and 227 suspensions.
Kildare had the second highest proportion with 799 refusals and 119 suspensions, followed by Louth with 306 refusals.
Listen to the full report from Newstalk Breakfast here:
'You can understand why'
Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy at Focus Ireland, has said says there are genuine reasons people refuse a property.
"The vast majority of cases where people turn down social housing, you can really understand why," he said.
"It might be they've a disabled child and there might not be public transport in the area which is adapted for disability.
"They may need family members to provide childcare so they can hang on to their job.
"You find that the reasons, in very many cases, are about people trying to find the best life for them and their family."
Mr Allen said he believes the allocation system needs to become more efficient.
"The best way of reducing the number of things that are turned down is not by punishing people, but by making sure that the offer fully reflect what they said they needed in the first place," he said.
"Very often you find that when something is turned down, it was because something that that family or that household had said right at the beginning was essential for them hasn't been taken into account when they're offered this particular unit," he added.
'Bizzare' reasons
Dublin Fine Gael Councillor Jim Gildea said some of the reasons for refusing a house are "bizarre."
"People want to live within a certain distance of their family home, or they want to have more or less a sea view," he said.
"One thing that a local authority is not: we're not a property agency - 'come and view the house and then you can decide'.
"The fact that it's on the third floor rather than the second floor that's not the job of a local authority, to be like an auctioneer."
Councillor Gildea believes a Choice Based Letting system should be introduced nationwide.
"In 2014 we had a refusal rate, in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, of 43%; by 2017, after we introduced a trial run of CBL, it had reduced to 25%.
"We have situations in the county, not very many, where people who are in homelessness and have refused to go out of homelessness because the house that was offered to them didn't meet their expectation.
"That is nonsense and that is wrong," he added.
'No plans' to change system
The Department of Housing has said there are no plans to change the suspension penalties for people who refuse a social housing offer.
"Generally, an applicant household that refuses two reasonable offers of a social housing tenancy in any 12-month period, other than an offer through the Choice Based Letting system, will not receive another offer for one year from the date of the second refusal," the department said in a statement.
"There are no plans to revise this in the short-term.
"That said, the department is currently working with local authorities to roll-out Choice-Based Letting across the country.
"Choice-Based Letting allows available social dwellings to be advertised by local authorities to persons on the social housing waiting list, and for qualified applicants to 'register an interest' in available homes in areas of their choice.
"The system offers more choice and involvement for applicant households in selecting a new home, helping reduce the likelihood of a refusal and knock-on delays in the allocation of social homes to applicants on the respective local authority waiting lists.
"More than half of local authorities currently operate a Choice Based Letting system. The department continues to liaise with other local authorities to facilitate the roll-out of Choice Based Letting nationwide," it added.
Data in this report was collected from 20 councils across the country, as not every council responded at the original time of publication.
The figures
Below is a breakdown of the figures from each of the 20 councils.
Waterford
The total number of properties advertised on the CBL system to date is 1,122. There have been 342 refusals on properties.
Leitrim
Refusals
2019 -35
2020 – 18
2021-10
2022- 8
Total: 71
Suspended
2019- 2
2020- 2
2021- 0
2022 - 1
Total: 5
Wexford
Refusals
2019 – 89
2020 – 81
2021 – 73
Total: 243
Our records indicate 9 suspensions since 01/01/2019.
Dublin City Council
Refusals
2019 - 644
2020 - 572
2021 - 758
2022 - 549
Total Refusals – 2523
Suspensions
149 applicants were or still are deferred for refusing 2 offers in 12 month period.
Fingal
Refusals
2020 – 220
2021 – 247
2022 – 180
Total: 647
Suspended
2020- 27
2021 – 28
2022 – 23
Total: 78
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
Refusals
2019 – 70
2020 - 48
2021 - 80
2022 – 57 (to 1st Dec)
Total: 255
No suspended figures
South Dublin County Council
Refusals
2020 – 71
2021 - 146
2022 – 193
Total: 410
No figures on suspensions.
Galway
2019
LA Properties Refusals 14
AHB Refusal 3
2020
LA Properties Refusals 42
AHB Refusals 10
2021
LA Properties Refusals 38
AHB Refusals 25
2022
LA Properties Refusals 17
AHB Refusals 2022 14
Total: 163
Suspended
2019 - 1
2020 - 2
2021 - 3
2022 – 0
Total: 6
Monaghan
Since the 1st of Jan 2019 there has been 208 refusals on properties.
Our refusal rate is between 25% and 30%
Total: 208
No answer on suspensions.
Laois
Refusals
2019 - 34
2020 - 28
2021 - 25
2022 – 18
Total: 105
Limerick
Refusals
2019 - 34
2020 - 65
2021 - 22
2022 – 14
Total: 135
Suspensions
2019 – 2
2020 – 6
2021 - 4
2022 – 0 when requested.
Total: 12
Tipperary
The number of offers that have been refused
2019 - 70
2020 – 110
2021 – 28
2022 – 48
Total: 256
Suspended
2019 – 4
2020 – 6
2021 – 3
2022 – 3
Total: 16
Kildare
2019 – 112 refusals
2020 – 249 refusals
2021 – 210 refusals
2022 to date – 228 refusals
Total: 799
Suspended
2019 – 7 suspensions
2020 – 40 suspensions
2021 – 40 suspensions
2022 – 32 suspensions
Total: 119
Longford
Following are the figures from iHouse in relation to refusals since January 2019. Whilst data quality has improved year on year, the absolute accuracy of the following statistics cannot be guaranteed:
Refusals
2019: 16
2020: 46
2021: 46
2022 YTD: 25
Total: 133
Suspensions since 2019: 5
Louth
Refusals
2019 - 40
2020 - 56
2021 - 128
2022 – 82
Total: 306
No applicants have been suspended from the Louth housing list.
Cavan
Refusals
2019 - 32
2020 - 31
2021 - 64
2022 – 46
Total: 173
Suspensions
2019 - 6
2020 - 1
2021 - 5
2022 – 1
Total: 13
Clare
Refusals
2019 - 32
2020 - 36
2021 - 17
2022 – 24
Total: 109
Suspensions
2019 - Nil households suspended.
2020 - 1 no household suspended.
2021 - 4 no households suspended.
2022 - Nil households suspended
Total: 5
Cork County Council
Refusals
2019 - 61
2020 - 73
2021 – 71
2022 – 34
Total - 239
Suspensions
2019 – 0
2020 – 1
2021 – 0
2022 – 0
Total: 1
Roscommon
Refusals
2019 – 41
2020 – 49
2021 – 40
Sept 2022 – 13
Total: 143
Suspensions
2019 – 1
2020 – 1
2021 – 1
2022 – 0
Total: 3
Meath
Meath
Refused since 2019: 433
Additional reporting: Jack Quann
