However, drug driving arrests are up 34% from 11 to 32 incidents so far this year.

The funds announced this afternoon are part of the Town and Village Funding Scheme which aims to tackle vacancy and dereliction.

Works will include the partial removal of an existing palisade fence and the provision of a new electrical plant and equipment.

They were down by 13 per cent in Longford and dropped by 55 per cent in Leitrim.

There are a total of 252 people on the social housing waiting list in Leitrim, including 152 in the Carrick-on-Shannon Municipal District

It comes as the country’s prisons are overcrowded, with almost 4,900 inmates behind bars – almost 400 more than capacity.