Mr. Ivan Grimes:

I thank the committee for the invitation to attend the meeting this afternoon. I am accompanied by my colleague Mr. Paul Johnston, who is the senior resident engineer in Waterford City and County Council's housing department. He is one of the people who came up with the concept of the repair-and-lease scheme in the first instance. I have a very brief opening statement. After that and the conclusion of the other statements, Mr. Johnston and I will endeavour to take any questions members may have.

Since 2016, Waterford Council has been actively seeking to reduce the number of vacant homes across Waterford city and county. This was in the context of census 2016 data, which indicated that the number of vacant residential units in Waterford was nearly 5,200, or 13.6 %of the total residential stock. That cannot be sustained in the context of increasing demand for social and private housing.

Working with our councillors, we put in place an action plan. Some of the key objectives are to maximise the potential for the reuse of empty homes for social and private housing; increase public awareness of the issue of vacant properties to give people an opportunity to bring issues to the council directly; improve streetscapes in cities and towns; promote the availability of funding, schemes and initiatives designed to tackle vacancy; and, important in a social context, reduce the level of local antisocial behaviour that can often occur in long-term vacant properties.

A vacant homes team was established in the housing department. Its primary focus was to identify and record vacant units and assess the options available to bring those units back into occupancy. The team works to encourage vacant property owners to allow their properties to be used for social housing through the repair and lease and buy and renew schemes. We have taken enforcement action through CPOs. In our experience, the repair and lease and buy and renew schemes have been particularly effective in Waterford. The use of CPOs has had more mixed results, with legal delays and challenges in some instances, but we intend to continue to use the CPO process.

There are approximately 320 units in the repair and lease scheme pipeline in Waterford, including 140 that have already been returned to productive use since the scheme commenced. There are approximately 50 units in the buy and renew scheme pipeline. Both schemes, particularly the repair and lease scheme, have delivered one-bedroom and two-bedroom units for us, particularly in urban areas where demand for this type of accommodation is most acute. Both schemes have been used in combination with initiatives such as the living city initiative and planning exemptions that allow vacant commercial and retail buildings to be converted into residential accommodation. Interest in the repair and lease scheme is very high in Waterford. The Department recently approved a scheme that will deliver 71 units within a former convent building. In this regard, we will be targeting elderly residents primarily.

To date, we have applied CPOs to approximately 49 vacant dwellings to return them to use for housing purposes. There have been mixed results. The success rate is probably around 50%.

We acknowledge the ongoing support the council has received from the Department through funding it has provided and also the encouragement and advice it has given us, particularly when we were implementing the repair and lease scheme.