Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 March 2025
10. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for a breakdown of the purchases progressed under the tenant in situ scheme in Fingal west for 2023 and 2024; the number of applicants in total for both years; the projected purchases for 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12894/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe question is a fairly straightforward one. I am looking for some information regarding the tenant in situ scheme. It genuinely seems like the third or fourth secret of Fatima, or whatever it is. Trying to get information out of the county council can be incredibly difficult but it should not be because this is a very important intervention. It is a homeless prevention measure. For the avoidance of any doubt, any person who applies for the tenant in situ scheme and does not get it is given some very helpful advice by the county council, but the Minister and I both know they are just heading straight into emergency accommodation.
The tenant in situ acquisitions programme has been a key measure in the prevention of homelessness since its introduction in 2023. Therefore, Government has agreed funding to continue the programme for 2025. My Department has notified local authorities on the extension of the programme, and a circular setting out the arrangements will issue shortly.
In 2023, Fingal County Council purchased a total of 221 homes, exceeding the allocation of 125. In the first nine months of 2024, Fingal completed 116 secondhand acquisitions, exceeding its allocation of 100. My Department does not hold data on the number of acquisition applications that have been withdrawn or rejected, nor does it hold data on the timelines for such acquisitions. This information, and the details for requesting a review on decisions made, may be available from individual local authorities.
My Department publishes comprehensive programme-level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity by local authorities and approved housing bodies in each local authority. Comprehensive data on social and affordable housing is published on my Department's website up to quarter 3 2024, including completed acquisitions. Data for all of these schemes up to quarter 4 2024 is being collected and collated at the moment.
I am looking for the specifics with regard to 2025 as well. I have constituents but I am not going to give the Minister too many details because it is absolutely mortifying for people to have their entire private lives traipsed across the Dáil. I know a woman who is the survivor of domestic abuse, and so is one of her daughters who she is living with. It is herself, her daughters and her grandchildren. They have now been given a notice to quit, and the advice they got from the council was that if they were receipt of a valid notice to quit to contact the homeless services. People are told that if they have a housing application with another local authority, they should direct it to the parent authority and if they do not have one, they can join the housing list. People are advised to get themselves private rented accommodation. There is no private rented accommodation in my constituency - absolutely none, zero. That advice is quite frankly insulting. Just so the Minister knows, this woman told me it is hopeless. She said she cannot sleep with the stress. She works nights, and she spends her days awake, frantic, worrying about where she, her daughters and grandchildren are going to live. If the council has that information from the Minister, that is welcome. However, what it needs is an instruction from the Minister's Department to get going on purchasing these homes. As I said, for the avoidance of any doubt, it is a homeless prevention measure for people who are not successful under this scheme or who have to leave because the scheme takes too long and who are going into emergency accommodation. There is no rental accommodation for them.
I thank the Deputy for this important question. I am very much aware of the housing crisis right across this country that causes very serious pain and suffering for individual families as a result. That is why I am determined to get our housing deliveries increased at a significant level. The tenant in situ scheme is a programme to ensure that people do not become homeless. That is why €325 million has been made available for this year. Local authorities will be issued a circular in the very near future notifying them of their allocation of funding to purchase houses under the tenant in situ scheme.
The advice people are given is that their application will be noted, and a member of the team will be in contact once they have further details and clarity from the Minister's Department. It is, therefore, incredibly important that he gets that information out as soon as possible. It is long overdue but as is often the case with this Government, it might be better late than never. We are talking about human beings. The stress of this is unbelievable. I am not sure if it gets through to the Minister what it must be like to go to sleep every night and to just not know. People do not want to overhold, but they are being advised that this might be the only option because there is nowhere else for them to go. There is nowhere for them to rent - I think we can all agree on that - and emergency accommodation is not where people want to go, particularly if they have kids who have additional or special needs or if they themselves have special needs.
I am dealing with a man in his 60s who is overholding. The stress of that is absolutely incredible. They are waiting for information from the Minister's Department with regard to a homeless prevention measure in the middle of a housing crisis the Government has caused. I really do not get any sense of urgency from the Minister this morning with regard to this, and I will convey that back to my constituents, but it will give me absolutely no pleasure to do it.
We have a supplementary question from the Deputy's colleague.
The tenant in situ scheme has been one of those successes with regard to preventing homelessness. We need that circular or the criteria to issue as soon as possible and, obviously, the funding to be provided to local authorities. We have had a huge number of cases. Louth County Council made a large number of purchases that saved an awful lot of people from dreadful circumstances, but a huge number have been stalled within the last period. I accept checks and balances with regard to purchasing houses that are up to standard are needed but there have also been times when the local authority is not looking at old local authority housing stock and is literally looking at what are almost brand new houses, and I have spoken to the Minister before about how there needs to be flexibility with regard to the money from, let us say, a maintenance point of view. While I accept they need to be up to a certain specification, there needs to be flexibility. That needs to be built into the system. I can think of one young woman in a house in a local authority housing estate that should be bought even from an estate management point of view. It would be a win all round, including for her, for that particular estate and so on. That flexibility needs to be in place but we need this to happen as soon as possible.
I can assure the Deputies that this is an absolute priority for me. It is not ideal that it was not resolved before the general election. The funding is now in place. I will be acting with absolute speed to get this circular out. The very same people who are in that very distressing situation come to me. It might surprise Deputy O'Reilly but they do come to Fianna Fáil TDs as well-----
I see the responses you send them. You should be ashamed.
-----and they come to my office and my clinics.
I would not be-----
The Deputy does not have a monopoly on sympathy in these situations. We are doing everything we can to address the housing crisis.
