Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank all the witnesses for coming in today and for answering our questions. I am going to go back over the tenant in situ scheme. I know some of that ground has already been covered. We know that in 2023, there was an underspend of about €255 million generally for local authority housing. We know also that Dublin City Council gets 70% to 75% of the homeless budget and the majority of the homeless people are catered for in the city, yet, when it came to tenant in situ, we got 30% of the tenant in situ budget. Obviously, we know the narrative around tenant in situ is that it is used to prevent homelessness and it was doing that very effectively in Dublin. It also had the double benefit of increasing local authority housing stock.

Where did that change of heart in the Department come from? Anecdotally, it came from the ether in the Department of housing that the tenant in situ scheme did not represent value for money and that it was effectively being shut down. I cannot see how it is not value for money. Inflationary measures do not really affect it. You are not dealing with increases or decreases in VAT or the costs of construction. It was a really good way of increasing the social housing stock. Where in the Department did the idea to gut the tenant in situ scheme come from?