No application has been received from the council. Recently it passed a motion calling on my Department to release funding to it to continue with its central heating programme.
The position regarding the funding of the provision of central heating is as follows: the management, maintenance and improvement of their rented dwellings, including the installation of central heating, is in principle, the responsibility of local authorities to be financed from their own resources; and where capital funding is provided under remedial or regeneration schemes operated by my Department for the upgrading of local authority dwellings, the provision of central heating may form part of the work undertaken.
To date such funding has been provided for the council under the following schemes: the remedial works scheme which assists local authorities in carrying out major essential works to dwellings in designated estates; the special area regeneration programme which consists of a once-off programme of upgrading high density older flat complexes; and the redevelopment of a number of seriously rundown flat complexes involving a mix of new buildings, refurbishment and, where appropriate, demolition and replacement.
To date my Department has provided some €391 million for the above schemes, including over €160 million for the major programme of regeneration of Ballymun. In addition, the council has been undertaking a programme, funded from its own resources, to provide central heating in its older housing stock. My Department has approved borrowing totalling €12.861 million by the council for this purpose. At present it is finalising a survey of its stock to establish the number of houses remaining without central heating. The timescale for the completion of this programme is a matter for the council.
Local authorities may also seek my Department's approval to use their internal capital receipts which are surplus to the requirements of the local authority housing construction and remedial works programmes for the provision of central heating in their rented housing stock.
Apart from the foregoing, there is no specific funding mechanism available from my Department for the installation of central heating in local authority rented dwellings. The council has been advised to this effect on a number of occasions.
