Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 February 2024
246. Deputy Steven Matthews asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the position regarding the number of vacant social homes brought back into active use under the voids programme in County Wicklow for 2021, 2022 and 2023, broken down in tabular form by local electoral area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4992/24]
View answerThe 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.
Since 2014, Exchequer funding has also been provided through my Department's Voids Programme to supplement the local authority funding available for the preparation of vacant properties for re-letting. The funding was introduced originally to tackle long term vacant units and is now increasingly targeted to support authorities to ensure minimal turnaround and re-let times for vacant stock.
An annualised breakdown by local authority of the funding provided and the number of properties remediated under the Voids programme for the years 2014 up to and including 2023 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's position is to issue a full year's allocation to each of the Local Authorities, therefore details in relation to local electoral area is not collated by my Department, however, this information may be available from the Local Authorities upon request.
