I propose to take Questions Nos. 141 and 142 together.
Data relating to the local authority housing stock, including information on vacancy rates and the time taken to re-let properties, are compiled by the Local Government Management Agency as part of the annual local authority service indicators. Electronic copies of the reports, including the most recent report for 2012, which was published on 25 March 2014, are available on the Local Government Management Agency’s website www.lgma.ie.
Compilation of the 2013 data is in progress and will be published by the LGMA in due course. To assist in the management of my Department’s social housing retrofitting measure for 2014 local authorities have been requested to provide details of the level of vacant stock at end 2013.
Under my Department’s Social Housing Investment Programme, funding is provided to local authorities for a wide range of measures aimed at improving the social housing stock, including estate-wide remedial works, the regeneration of run-down social housing estates and flat complexes, the energy retrofitting of older houses and apartments and adaptations and extensions to meet the needs of tenants with a disability. Over the course of 2011 and 2012 my Department’s energy retrofitting programme focussed exclusively on the refurbishment of vacant properties with the objective of returning as many of these to productive use in as short a time as possible. Over that period, some €52.5 million was recouped to local authorities and some 4,774 properties were improved. While the recoupments made under the other improvement measures over the past five years would also have included some level of funding in respect of works to vacant properties it is not possible to disaggregate the data in this regard. Details of the amounts of funding recouped to individual authorities in respect of the retrofitting measures for vacant properties in 2011 and 2012 are set out in the following table:
Recoupment to Local Authorities for Retrofitting in 2011/2012
|
LOCAL AUTHORITY
|
2011
|
2012
|
|
Carlow County Council
|
222,579
|
€136,685
|
|
Cavan County Council
|
621,638
|
€518,080
|
|
Clare County Council
|
947,201
|
€455,145
|
|
Cork City Council.
|
1,170,000
|
€710,727
|
|
Cork County Council
|
1,184,352
|
€1,198,370
|
|
Donegal County Council.
|
1,098,643
|
€563,428
|
|
Dublin City Council
|
7,500,000
|
€3,991,502
|
|
Dun Laoghaire/ Rathdown County Council
|
920,066
|
€658,504
|
|
Fingal County Council
|
926,716
|
€769,599
|
|
South Dublin County Council
|
1,229,868
|
€239,426
|
|
Galway City Council
|
225,000
|
€336,274
|
|
Galway County Council
|
623,847
|
€615,570
|
|
Kerry County Council
|
1,275,522
|
€468,204
|
|
Kildare County Council
|
847,262
|
€458,238
|
|
Kilkenny County Council
|
1,299,110
|
€218,592
|
|
Laois County Council
|
391,027
|
€198,943
|
|
Leitrim County Council
|
368,283
|
€705,365
|
|
Limerick City Council
|
702,223
|
€1,212,501
|
|
Limerick County Council
|
2,045,043
|
€206,884
|
|
Longford County Council
|
388,860
|
€409,128
|
|
Louth County Council
|
873,895
|
€349,967
|
|
Mayo County Council
|
686,258
|
€519,410
|
|
Meath County Council
|
737,499
|
€380,333
|
|
Monaghan County Council
|
315,100
|
€152,736
|
|
Offaly County Council
|
375,000
|
€276,527
|
|
Roscommon County Council
|
200,000
|
€231,671
|
|
Sligo County Council
|
498,889
|
€339,800
|
|
Tipperary NR County Council
|
1,098,270
|
€501,864
|
|
Tipperary SR County Council
|
1,089,481
|
€566,870
|
|
Waterford City Council
|
426,534
|
€365,904
|
|
Waterford County Council
|
297,575
|
€392,370
|
|
Westmeath County Council
|
385,316
|
€209,468
|
|
Wexford County Council
|
1,053,525
|
€463,231
|
|
Wicklow County Council
|
702,440
|
€1,028,112
|
|
Overall Total
|
€32,727,022
|
€19,849,428
|
On Budget Day 2014 I announced details of a new measure with funding of €15 million which will be invested in bringing vacant and boarded-up local authority houses back into productive use. My Department recently advised local authorities that funding of up to €30,000 per dwelling will be provided for a suite of retrofitting works to bring vacant properties back to a high standard. Funding will be allocated on the basis of equitable and evidence based criteria which reflect the merit and cost effectiveness of proposals and the degree of local housing need. Local authorities are required to submit proposals, including details of the overall numbers of vacant properties in their social housing stock at end 2013, to my Department by 28 March, 2014. I intend to announce details of the funding allocations as soon as possible afterwards.
