Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair, and all of the witnesses for being here today and all of their teams for the work they are doing on the ground in preventing homelessness and in making sure we are building, acquiring and leasing more homes for people.

I will start with Ms Stapleton. I have two questions for her and two questions for the CCMA. We heard a little bit about the allocation decisions being up to individual local authorities. I refer to the circular sent out on 13 March. It is aiming for 1,500 tenants in situnationwide, and 10% of those are in my local authority of South Dublin County Council. Does that get reviewed at any point in time if certain local authorities are finding they do not have the demand or the need coming their way, and others are? A figure of 150 seems quite low for South Dublin County Council, and it might be looking at that on a quarterly basis and at what that looks like. I cannot speak for it, but if all local authorities are using their different mechanisms, at what point do the 40 Kildare County Council does not use go back in the pile for others to be looked at? That is my question, and I am using Kildare as an example.

My second question is for the Department and its key performance indicators, KPIs, around build, acquisition and leasing. As part of that, are vacancies and voids monitored? Does Ms Stapleton have any percentages she could give to us in relation to the approved housing bodies, AHBs, in particular, and on vacancies and voids?

I would like to ask the CCMA about the tenants in situprogramme being rolled out. Are there enough staff to make this happen in local authorities? My local authority staff are under immense pressure. This seems to be a huge responsibility to be putting on people who are not real estate agents, and who do not deal with this as their bread and butter. Is there the will among local authorities to take on certain properties that might not be up to the building energy rating, BER, or that will have maintenance costs versus the new, shiny builds that are coming this way?

I would like to ask Dublin City Council, given that it piloted this in 2018, how it works from a long-term perspective if its tenants are in the home purchased for them, there is overcrowding, they have outgrown it, they have another child or whatever the case may be. How does that work from a practical perspective?

If some tenants leave that accommodation, is it easy to get other people to move in or is it a less attractive proposition than a new build? Perhaps the Department could start. I am afraid we only have four and a half minutes for everyone to contribute.