Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am here in Leinster House. I thank each of the witnesses for giving us their time today. It is very valuable to us. As an Oireachtas joint committee, we look at housing generally, but today we are talking specifically about the renovation of existing built vacant and-or derelict properties, and we all understand the difference between those. Housing for All identifies vacant properties and the restoration and renovation of them as the most sustainable way to increase housing stock. It is not the only way to do so but it is certainly the most sustainable way.

My questions in this round are directed largely at the Department. I will come back in at a later round if I can. My first question for the Department is about Croí Cónaithe. What are the specific targets for that? Second, we are in a housing crisis, and we have a homelessness crisis and a climate emergency. It is alarming the Department does not have accurate data on the number of vacant built homes that exist in the State. What specific actions is the Department taking to capture that data accurately? Is it relying on the Department of Finance and the local property tax exercise to capture those data? From a Dublin city perspective, it is no mystery. You can walk around any part of the city, and within 15 minutes to a half an hour, you can identify at least a dozen vacant or derelict properties or a combination of both.

I have some questions about the schemes already in place. In a Dublin city context, Dublin City Council has had a vacant homes officer since 2017. It has a one-stop shop. It has actively promoted the living city initiative, which has been in operation since 2015. However, there have only been 59 successful applications. Mr. Reynolds referred to the figure of 4,000 dwellings. Not all of them will fall into the living city initiative. The figure of 59 is, by any standard, paltry. Does the Department not think it has not worked? As it is a tax credit, it requires people who own properties and who are not necessarily cash-rich to spend money in advance to benefit from a tax credit over a seven-year period. It has not worked. Has the Department considered a grant scheme? The Department gives a direct grant for new-build affordable homes. Would it not consider grant funding for the renovation of existing properties that are on streets and in communities where public lighting, sewerage services and public transportation are available?

Through the buy-to-rent scheme, local authorities can buy properties and rent them out for social housing. I do not understand why local authorities are not allowed to count those properties they buy and rent to social housing tenants as part of their social housing targets. Will the Department explain why that is the case? Why would we not change that to incentivise local authorities by allowing them attribute them directly to their social housing targets? Dublin City Council has no target for the repair and lease scheme. I believe this is down to the fact that there is a €60,000 cap on the scheme. Has the Department looked at that and is it considering increasing that amount? The financial cost of repairing a vacant property, particularly an old vacant property, is significant. The economic and social reward of doing it is enormous. It regenerates streets and communities and it adds back to those communities.

From my experience, the compulsory purchase order, CPO, process by a local authority can take ten years to complete, then it starts looking for funding, and there are all of the issues around that. How does the Department propose to accelerate the CPO process and make it more effective? Utilising vacant housing is the most sustainable way for us to increase the housing stock. We need to do all the new builds, but to increase housing stock and regenerate these inner-city communities and rural towns, we need to prioritise this. How will the Department do that under Housing for All?