Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
677. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the amount of funding that was provided to Wicklow County Council for relets for the years 2017 to 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40394/22]
View answer678. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if an application has been submitted by Wicklow County Council for additional funding from his Department for relets pre-letting works for social housing for 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40395/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 677 and 678 together.
The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966.
Notwithstanding the legal obligations on local authorities to manage and maintain their housing stock, my Department does provide annual funding to local authorities to support their work in this area through the Voids Programme. This funding was initially introduced to tackle long term vacant units and is now increasingly targeted at ensuring minimal turnaround and re-let times for local authority vacant stock.
From 2014 to 2021, expenditure of some €261 million was recouped to local authorities under the Voids Programme which funded the return to productive use of 18,527 properties nationwide.
An annualised breakdown of the funding provided and the number of properties remediated under the Voids programme for each local authority, including Wicklow County Council, for the years 2014-2021 is available on my Department's website at the following link:
www.gov.ie/en/collection/0906a-other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics/#voids-programme
My Department continues to support local authorities in their work in this area. For 2022, €25 million of funding is being provided under the Voids Programme to support the return of 2,273 vacant local authority homes. Of this, €935,000 has been allocated to Wicklow County Council to remediate 85 vacant properties. My Department has not received claims against the local authority’s allocation to date however full details in relation to the vacant properties remediated under the 2022 programme will be available in early 2023.
