Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 June 2020
1244. Deputy Johnny Guirke asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the overall national percentage of local authority housing currently vacant, awaiting refurbishment, reallocation or other reasons; the average time vacant; the breakdown by local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9421/20]
View answerUnder Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, responsive repairs and implementing planned maintenance programmes, is a matter for each individual local authority.
My Department actively encourages local authorities to ensure all vacant properties in their stock are brought back into use as expeditiously as possible. Since 2014, funding has been provided for this purpose under the Voids Programme and the suite of works being funded is tailored to encourage swift turnaround. Local authorities also provide significant funding from their own resources to address the level of vacancy within the social housing stock.
Local authorities will always have a level of vacancy in their housing stock and this will fluctuate over time, as tenancy surrender and re-letting of stock is an ongoing process. Statistics in relation to social housing stock are collated by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in their annual reports on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities. These statistics are set out by local authority and include the percentage of such dwellings that were vacant at the end of the year. The most recent report, relating to 2018, is available on the NOAC website at the following link:
http://noac.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/NOAC-Performance-Indicator-Report-2018-1.pdf.
