Local Authority Housing

Tuesday, 24 November 2020

Questions (391)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

391. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of existing local authority houses that have been refurbished or upgraded in each of the past three years to date by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38699/20]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The relevant details are being compiled and will be provided to the Deputy in accordance with Standing Orders.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51

As part of each local authority’s own management and maintenance of their housing stock, it is a matter for the authorities to address maintenance or improvements to their housing stock from within their own resources. My Department does not have data on this but it may be available from the local authorities themselves. Refurbishment and upgrade of local authority houses is also carried out through specific funding programmes supported by my Department.

One such exchequer funding programme is for the retrofitting of local authority homes to make them more energy efficient. An annualised breakdown of the properties retrofitted under the programme per local authority, is available on my Department's website at the following link:

https://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/energy-efficiencyretrofitting/energy-efficiency-retrofitting-programme.

My Department has also supported local authorities to refurbish vacant social homes and return them to productive use under the ‘Voids Programme’. The number of properties supported under this programme by local authority between 2017 and 2019 were as follows -

	Units Returned to use in 2017	Units Returned to use in 2018	Units Returned to use in 2019
Carlow	8	38	14
Cavan	31	14	9
Clare	47	43	62
Cork City	81	74	69
Cork County	48	205	70
Donegal	168	86	43
Dublin City	543	495	495
Fingal	121	48	22
South Dublin	87	61	89
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown	31	50	83
Galway City	11	3	3
Galway County	37	45	39
Kerry	90	98	61
Kildare	8	27	11
Kilkenny	16	15	13
Laois	4	12	23
Leitrim	0	30	22
Limerick	13	24	75
Longford	0	3	19
Louth	7	13	5
Mayo	22	20	5
Meath	52	59	22
Monaghan	38	52	13
Offaly	7	10	18
Roscommon	3	2	2
Sligo	40	100	40
Tipperary	107	63	72
Waterford	52	20	55
Westmeath	40	23	7
Wexford	34	8	29
Wicklow	11	24	13

Exchequer funding for 90% of costs, is provided by my Department to local authorities to adapt their social homes to meet the needs of certain tenants under the Disabled Persons Grant scheme. The scheme applies to works that are necessary to address the needs of older people or people with a disability. Data on the number of properties supported under this programme by local authority between 2017 and 2019 is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

https://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/grantsfinancial-assistance/disabled-persons-grant-and-improved-works-lieu-schemes-units.

Lastly, my Department funds programmes of regeneration and remedial works in a number of targeted areas around the country. These programmes involve significant levels of funding support with a focus on new build programmes. Some remediation and upgrade of existing properties is also involved, and the number of properties upgraded under these programmes over the period 2017 to 2019 is as follows –

-	2017 No. of units refurbished	2018 No. of units refurbished	2019 No. of units refurbished
Cork City	0	0	26
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown	3	0	0
Galway County	14	0	0
Kerry	2	3	4
Kildare	0	0	34
Limerick City & County	112	159	228
Monaghan	0	0	2
Sligo	6	0	16
Wicklow	27	33	8