Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 January 2022
69. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the work under way to ensure that each local authority has a dedicated officer or officers to work on reducing housing vacancy rates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3050/22]
View answerCounties in the west are disproportionately suffering from high rates of residential vacancy. We need to ensure that our local authorities are prioritising resources to target vacancy and boost existing housing supply where it is lying idle. What is being done within the Department to ensure that full-time staff are in place in local authority vacant housing offices?
I thank Deputy Dillon for his question. I know he is a great advocate in this area as I have been to Mayo and have seen at first hand the work Mayo County Council has carried out and the lobbying Deputy Dillon has been doing.
I am happy to confirm that a circular has been issued in the past 24 hours to increase by 20% the funding that has been attached to the vacant homes office. We also now have a plan to transition all vacant homes officer posts into full-time positions. Heretofore, as Members will be aware, only three counties in the 31-strong local authority network had a full-time vacant homes officer. We expect by quarter 2 of 2022 to complete the transition and have that as a full-time service throughout the 31-strong local authority network.
It is also very important to note that we will have a training workshop this week, on Thursday, to try to expedite this because it is such an urgent issue and to stitch into the key funding that is available. We have seen the significant funding Castlebar has got under the urban regeneration and development fund and the huge opportunities there will now be for places in Mayo through Croí Cónaithe and the funding that will flow through that to enhance the potential of derelict properties and vacant homes and to get them back into residential use. There are also the new regulations we will update in the coming week. They will mean that old commercial properties like pubs and derelict properties will not need planning permission to transition into residential units.
We, therefore, have a significant amount of work ongoing, on which I am happy to update Deputy Dillon.
I welcome the positive news of the increased departmental funding for supports for vacant homes officers. Having those positions on a full-time basis will strengthen local authorities in combating vacant properties. The latest GeoDirectory residential building report for quarter 4 of 2021 showed that Mayo has the second highest residential vacancy rate in the country, standing at 11.9%. For many it can be disheartening to feel locked out of purchasing a home in the area of their choice while walking around their local area and seeing examples of empty or vacant dwellings that have the potential to make the perfect home with some work. I again ask that the Government and local authorities continue to encourage property owners to bring houses back into use by registering vacant properties and by helping identify their owners, particularly in areas where there is housing need. I know that the Minister of State is very much working towards that.
Mayo has done huge work in highlighting vacanthomes.ie to identify vacancy and areas in which properties can be brought back into use. It is very important that local authorities have full-time vacant homes officers in place to take advantage of these key funding streams now being put forward by the Government with record levels of funding to try to bring these properties back into use. In addition, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is working on the first-time buyer's grant to bring derelict properties back into use. That will be a very significant intervention as well. All these schemes will provide people with a sustainable outcome for living in rural areas and provincial towns, like we have in County Mayo. I look forward to working with Deputy Dillon to expand further these schemes. I am sure we have the best possible suite of armoury to respond to this huge challenge.
Solving the current housing crisis will certainly require the most innovative solutions. The Minister of State made reference to the vacanthomes.ie website, which was developed by Mayo County Council. That provides a starting point of contact for each local authority. I acknowledge Tom Gilligan, the website's founder, and his work in this area. Maybe it would also be useful to develop a website into a one-stop-shop model highlighting the various grants and incentives in place to alleviate the vacancy crisis. The Department should prioritise this and expand the vacanthomes.ie website.
Finally, extending the first-time buyer's initiatives to vacant and derelict homes will significantly help young people across the country, especially in County Mayo, looking to buy and renovate their own homes. I welcome that initiative.
I congratulate the Minister of State on the work he is doing in this area. Until recently, in County Cork, from Castletownbere to Youghal to Mitchelstown to Newmarket, there was one part-time vacant homes officer, and that was the tenth job he had. Would the Minister of State agree with me that County Cork should have three full-time vacant homes officers to cover such a huge area and in order to deliver what the Minister of State wants to deliver?
To Deputy Dillon I will say that we will launch our Town Centre First initiative very shortly, in the coming weeks. That will be an enabling strategy to tie together a lot of the funding streams to which he referred in order to unlock the potential of our rural towns and villages right across the country. That will be a significant intervention by the Government.
Deputy Stanton is fully correct. There has been a huge problem in respect of full-time vacant homes officers. We are now increasing the funding significantly, by 20%. With additional funding coming into local authorities, we hope they will make the best decisions with the resources they have. Staffing is a matter for the chief executive, but there is a huge open goal to be scored here in bringing derelict or vacant sites back into residential use because the demand for them is definitely there. It just needs additional work to try to unlock that potential.
