Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I have responsibility for the numbers concerning my Department but I am willing to talk to colleagues to determine whether there is another piece of work we can do on this issue. I will raise the issue with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.

The Senator asked me to reconsider the various local authority social housing income thresholds. I will consider this but I do not want to give too strong a commitment on what we can do. I had a meeting yesterday on the mortgage-to-rent scheme we have had in place. I believe it was piloted in 2011 and rolled out in 2013. The uptake has not been as strong as we would like but there are reasons for this, including the difficulty of engaging with some borrowers. There have been difficulties in terms of the eligibility criteria and people understanding them. The meeting I had yesterday also covered long-term financing solutions, potentially for a further rolling out of the scheme. It is definitely needed. It is a question of discovering other financing arrangements.

I have another meeting later this week to determine whether there is a potential avenue in this regard. I will also be having discussions with the Minister for Finance on other matters that have been discussed previously. That would mean that we could see a lot more people moving more quickly to mortgage-to-rent arrangements. There was a review conducted of the scheme. A report was produced in February of this year. One of the points made concerned timelines and the fact that it takes too long for people who present with this problem to move to a solution. We need to narrow the timelines if we can. There is a proposal in this regard to be explored.

The other point about the mortgage-to-rent scheme, on which I wish to touch briefly, is that we need to find a scheme that will work not only for people who have a need for social housing but also those who need an affordable solution but who do not meet the threshold criteria in regard to social housing. That is a matter I am going to examine also.

The Senator asked about staffing in local authorities. Each chief executive is responsible for staffing in his or her area. In 2016, the previous Minister sanctioned an arrangement for each local authority chief executive to fill vacancies at grade 7, equivalent grades and below and to bring about a workforce plan without needing to seek approval from the Department to do so. They have been given greater autonomy in doing that. Since that happened, 646 additional staff have been approved by the Department to deliver on the goals in regard to our housing and rebuilding strategy.

I was asked about boarded-up houses being bought out for homeless families and whether funding is a problem. Funding is not a problem in that scenario. I mentioned the two schemes we have that can help in this regard. On vacant homes in general, there is a new plan or strategy to come out. I have reviewed that already and I have engaged with officials on it. It comes under another pillar and I will address it under that if we get a chance. There are some new ideas that I want to bring to bear on the strategy.

A sum of €32 million is available this year for the repair-and-leasing scheme. Some €25 million is available for the buy-and-renew scheme. The issue in this regard is getting people to understand that the scheme exists.