Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 February 2024
66. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of vacant social homes returned to active use in Carlow from 2020 to 2023; his expectations for same in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6667/24]
View answer84. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of vacant social homes returned to active use in each of Limerick, Clare and Tipperary from 2020 to 2023; his expectations for same in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6671/24]
View answer86. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of vacant social homes returned to active use in the Dublin City Council area from 2020 to 2023; his expectations for same in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6673/24]
View answer96. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of vacant homes returned in Cork city under the voids return scheme in 2023; and the number to be returned in 2024. [6900/24]
View answer109. Deputy Joe Flaherty asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of vacant social homes returned to active use in Longford from 2020 to 2023; his expectations for same in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6669/24]
View answer122. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of vacant social homes returned to active use in each of south County Dublin and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown from 2020 to 2023; his expectations for same in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6675/24]
View answerIt shows the commitment of the Government that the three Ministers are in front of us this morning to answer all our questions. That is important because sometimes we come in for questions and find it hard to get the Ministers we want to address. I welcome the Ministers.
My question, as always, is on Carlow - as if the Ministers did not know when they saw me. I am looking to know the number of vacant social homes returned to active use in Carlow from 2020 to 2023 and the expectations for same for 2024.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 66, 84, 86, 96, 109 and 122 together, and obviously Carlow is top of the list.
The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, 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 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.
The number of homes returned to active use utilising funding from my Department's voids programme between 2020 and 2023 by the local authorities referenced in the Deputies' questions is as follows. In Carlow,144 units were returned and the funding allocation was €2.4 million. The equivalent figures for Clare, Cork city, Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Limerick, Longford, South Dublin County Council and Tipperary were 264 units and €5.371 million; 644 units and €10.09 million; 1,837 units and €31.2 million; 250 units and €3.829 million; 353 units and €6.858 million; 195 units and €5.087 million; 663 units and €8.712 million; and 472 units and €8.19 million, respectively.
Budget 2024 has provided €31 million to the overall programme this year and funding allocations under planned maintenance-voids will be announced in due course. Notwithstanding the voids funding being provided by our Department, local authorities have a responsibility to provide adequate housing maintenance budgets for 2024 and this parallel work by local authorities is essential for the development of the planned maintenance approach, which is a key objective of Housing for All.
To that end, our Department and local authorities are continuing to transition from a largely responsive and voids-based approach to housing stock management and maintenance, to a planned maintenance approach as referenced in Housing for All policy objective 20.6. This will require the completion of stock condition surveys by all local authorities and the subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes in response. The objective is to basically have the maximum number of housing units in use at all times, in respect of local authorities.
I thank the Minister of State. I welcome the 144 between 2020 and 2023. This year in Carlow, 33 properties got the funding and that is really important to us. The €50,000 grant for a vacant property has played a huge part in this. It is really good and been really positive for us, as has the €70,000 which is being given to derelict properties. There have been huge game-changers. All these grants and all these properties that are now being done up are so important and I welcome it.
On Barrack Street in Carlow, houses are going to be built under the URDF. The fund is for inner town centres. These are vacant properties and are going to be social housing but I cannot get a timescale on it. Is there any way the Minister of State could come back to me with a timescale on that because of the number of people who are ringing the office, which highlights that it is so important? This is a good scheme. Talking to couples coming in or people who are looking for properties, it has been really welcome.
Deputy McAuliffe is in this grouping as well as Deputy Haughey.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I welcome the Minister of State's clarification of the statistics on the funding. Dublin City Council has been investing in its housing stock for some time and reducing the voids. I think the council has some of the lowest void levels in the country. That is because it made the decision that was not just going to rely on central government funding and we were going to invest - I say "we" like I think I am still on the local authority - in its own stock as well. With some local authorities, there is a bit of inertia as they want all the money from central government but we must remember a housing authority is a housing authority, meaning it should manage its own housing stock.
I do not agree with the people who say we are sometimes over-speccing when we are doing a void because the local authority will often not go back into that home for 40, 50 or 60 years and if we are going to make the changes we need on climate action and living standards, I am certainly happy people are not living in the living standards they were living in 40, 50 or 60 years ago and I hope the people in 40 or 50 years will have the benefit of the investment we are putting in now.
I thank Deputies Murnane O'Connor and McAuliffe. We will certainly take up that question about the URDF funding on Barrack Street. We very much want to see the centres of places like Carlow coming back into use for people to live in.
By way of being of assistance to the Deputies, we can look at 2023 itself and getting to that plan-led maintenance approach. Taking Carlow, Deputy Murnane O'Connor is correct that 33 units were brought back into use. The overall allocation there was €732,000. That was a large additional allocation. Initially it was €430,000 and then there was an additional €300,000, which is a significant upturn. That is an average cost of €22,000 per unit. If we look at Dublin city, there was an overall allocation of €11.3 million. The initial allocation was €5.76 and that was doubled. Some 499 units came back into use at roughly the same cost per unit of €22,000. I will go through the other areas we are dealing with here. Clare has 54 units that got a total of approximately €10.5 million. Cork city has 130 units that got an allocation of €2.56 million. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown got €937,000 and brought 71 units back into use at a cost of €13,000 per unit. Limerick has 73 units coming back in for roughly €2 million. Longford has 54 units at a cost of €1.958 million with a very high per unit cost of about €36,000 per unit. South Dublin has 153 units with an allocation of €2.5 million at approximately €16,000 per unit. Tipperary has 100 units for a €2.428 million allocation at a cost of approximately €24,000 per unit. The average was€18,000 per unit. We want stock coming back into use. We accept the point about high value. We want to get to a place where voids are coming back into use as quickly as possible.
There are now three speakers, beginning with An Teachta Murnane O'Connor.
I again thank the Minister of State. I welcome this because I see all the good work that is being done in Carlow daily.
I want to raise HAP. Previous speakers raised homelessness and just since January we have had 45 cases of homelessness in Carlow. The HAP rates are being reviewed at the moment, which I welcome, and seemingly we will have a decision on the changes to them in April. That is what the Department is telling me. I am meeting with Carlow County Council and if someone is homeless, it only has a 30% discretion to try to get them into HAP accommodation. If we could get to 50%, which some counties have, it would make a huge change. We have seven properties in Carlow at the moment and they are all averaging €1,400.
I am moving slightly away but we are now university town. We are delighted to be but student accommodation is the huge issue. Is there some development charges relief with such accommodation like we see with housing and Irish Water?
I thank the Minister of State for the clarification and as I said, I congratulate Dublin City Council on the way it is approaching it. The issue in my constituency is not necessarily that of voids but of delivery. On the last count, 3,047 homes in my constituency are being built under Housing for All. All are public homes on public land. These are projects the Opposition not only voted against the budgets for but also the Bills that enabled them and, in some cases, they voted against the proposals when they came before the councils. There are 3,000 homes all at different phases of delivery and I ask the Minister of State to do everything he can to ensure the local authorities and the LDA work on each and every one of those to ensure they are delivered. I do not have time to go through all the sites but we have 15, 16, 17 housing sites all on public land being delivered in our constituency. "Delivery" is now the key word. We have the momentum behind it but I ask him to do everything he can to ensure we get those homes built and we get people into them.
I am giving An Teachta Gould a little bit of flexibility because he did not get in the first time.
That is very kind.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The Minister of State mentioned voids and casual lets, but the whole system the Government has does not work. We are looking to have it be open-ended so when a house becomes vacant the council can do it up and apply for the money immediately-----
They can.
-----rather than sending a list of all the houses to the Department and waiting for the decision to come back. The Minister is shaking his head but I know what I am talking about. Last weekend, I was in Mayfield and on one estate there were six boarded-up houses. I contacted the council on Monday morning to say what a disgrace it was. It is not just in Mayfield, but in The Glen, Knocknaheeny and Farranree. Throughout Cork city, council houses are boarded-up while there are 10,000 people looking for houses to get off the social housing list. The Government is leaving houses boarded-up.
I ask two things of the Minister and Ministers of State to sort this out. The first is that they let the councils do the work by paying them the money to do it because the Government has it capped and closed. It does not make sense. We have boarded-up houses. This has been happening for years. My last point is that houses come back to local authorities for a number of reasons, such as people dying, people moving and people buying houses. Cork City Council has 200 every year. The first thing the Government should do is give the council money for that 200 and then give it the rest of the money. In Cork right now, more than 400 houses are boarded up-----
That is the end of the flexibility.
-----on this Minister's watch.
The Minister of State gave the Cork city figure. The Deputy was late coming in to get that-----
We will try to do this through the Chair, will we?
-----but we might give that to him again.
Taking the Deputies in order, as Deputy Murnane O'Connor is probably aware, we increased the HAP rates in the last period. There is 30% discretion and we keep it under constant review. An area to point to is the tenant in situ scheme. We want people coming off HAP and on to tenant in situ. We set a target of 1,500 last year.
We have exceeded that target to reach 1,700. As regards the scheme, we want local authorities to purchase homes for people who are on HAP and where the landlord intends to sell the home. We are very keen on that and that any local authority be encouraged to continue to purchase homes under the tenant in situ scheme.
To respond to Deputy McAuliffe, we keep in constant contact with Dublin City Council, the LDA and whoever else is involved to progress those projects.
To respond to Deputy Gould, as regards Cork city, 130 voids were returned in 2023. He was not here earlier. Between 2020 and 2023, for Cork City Council the number was 644, with €10 million spent. We want properties to come back into use. Cork City Council spent roughly €19,000 to return each property to use. It is a combination. The councils have a scheme in terms of rents. They are supposed to use that also to bring properties back into use. We want a planned scheme whereby the councils move to bring back into use properties as they become vacant.
The Government is not giving them enough money.
Cork City Council last year got an initial allocation of €1.8 million. It received an additional allocation of €800,000, making a total of €2.56 million.
That is a drop in the ocean.
The point is that this is about a partnership model. Ultimately, we have to have a system. We want councillors to move to a situation whereby they bring properties back into use as quickly as possible as they become vacant. We do not want to see void properties.
