Mr. Kevin Kelly:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for the invitation to attend today's meeting to discuss the implementation of Housing for All. I apologise that we are not able to join in person due to other activities here today. Mayo County Council is acutely conscious of the importance of housing delivery and is taking a whole-of-organisation approach to it to ensure that all units, including housing, planning, roads and water services, are fully aligned in this endeavour. Mayo County Council completed its development plan review in 2021. This provides for a further 3,252 units to be completed in our towns and rural areas over the next six years. At present, approximately 1,500 housing units are permitted in Mayo that could be acted upon but have not yet been brought forward for development.

Mayo County Council believes it has a track record in supporting and actively delivering housing. In line with its track record on delivery, the council exceeded its overall target under the Rebuilding Ireland programme, despite the impact of Covid-19 on delivery. In the period 2019 to 2021, Mayo County Council assisted 1,425 households through the provision of accommodation, including 215 new builds, 47 acquisitions and 1,163 under the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS. The housing delivery target assigned to Mayo County Council under Housing for All was 730 for the period 2022 to 2026. It is the ambition of Mayo County Council to deliver 1,004 units over this period. It has successfully delivered its 2022 target of 90 units. Our submission document includes appendices with relevant figures. The delivery of these units will utilise direct build, Part V, approved housing bodies, AHBs, turnkey proposals and all of the schemes available to progress housing delivery.

It is important to highlight that recent years have been extremely challenging, with Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and construction cost inflation. These have caused disruption to the construction sector, impacted on supply chains and produced significant price increases for materials.

The projection of delivery includes 98 units for older persons and 49 units for people with disabilities. The total social housing demand in Mayo is 2,726 households, broken down by 1,203 on the housing waiting list and 1,523 on the housing transfer list. Of those people on the housing lists, approximately 75% require either one or two-bed accommodation.

While there are global challenges in respect of housing delivery, as referenced already, there are also local challenges, which we are working through. The Department approved and funded 11 additional posts for Mayo County Council to assist in the delivery of its housing programme. However, despite the best efforts of our recruitment unit, a number of these posts remain to be filled in a challenging recruitment market at present. The delivery of our housing targets is dependent on the council adding to its land bank and the delivery of 304 units will require additional land. While we have been actively engaged in land acquisition for a period of time, getting suitable land at a reasonable price has proved to be difficult. Having closed the purchase of one piece of land in Castlebar in late 2022, it is hoped that more significant progress can be made on this during 2023.

While Mayo is not one of the counties originally identified under the affordable housing initiative, Mayo County Council undertook specific assessment in respect of Westport, and having made the case to Department it has been approved for an affordable housing scheme. A second scheme is being developed for Westport and studies are under way in respect of Castlebar and Ballina to identify any affordability constraint that might allow those towns to also qualify for affordable housing.

Since March 2022, Mayo County Council has a designated full-time vacant homes officer, VHO, and the duties include the Croí Cónaithe (towns) fund scheme, the repair and leasing scheme and the buy and renew scheme, etc. The VHO follows up on vacant properties brought to our attention through the vacant homes website, vacanthomes.ie, or through direct contact. Mayo County Council is involved with the Department, since November 2022, in a data collection exercise that is being carried out to identify vacant dwellings in towns and villages. Mayo is one of six local authorities involved in this pilot. Mayo County Council has included 1,200 buildings as part of the pilot and approximately 1,100 of these properties have already been surveyed. This builds on the pilot vacant field survey carried out in 2018 and 2019. In addition, Mayo County Council is undertaking a project and collaborating with the Housing Finance Agency and housing solution platform Homebuyer’s Hero to bring vacant homes back into use. The tables included in our submission outline the ongoing work the council is involved in under the various Government schemes.

Our projected delivery for 2022 to 2026 for Part V homes envisages the delivery of 67 homes. Unfortunately, Part V has not been a significant source of delivery of social housing in Mayo, particularly in recent years, notwithstanding the number of extant permissions that could be activated, and there is unfortunately little evidence to suggest any significant change will occur in this regard. However, we continue to engage with developers with a view to activating sites with permission to the greatest extent possible.

Mayo County Council assesses dereliction in accordance with the definition and criteria set out under the Derelict Sites Act 1990. In 2022 a dedicated officer was appointed to pursue greater activity in respect of derelict sites and the derelict sites register, which has extended to 284 sites. We continue to pursue dereliction by way of engagement with owner-occupiers, issue of statutory notices and placement of sites on the register. During 2022, seven derelict sites were removed from the process before they were entered on the register. Some four sites were advanced through compulsory purchase order and are at vesting order stage. We envisage doing further work in this regard in the coming period. We have also established an interdepartmental group involving housing, environment and the municipal districts to deal with the issue of vacancy and dereliction, and will seek to fully utilise additional schemes such as Croí Cónaithe, where there is up to €50,000 available to assist in bringing vacant and derelict properties back into use.

I hope this gives members a brief overview of the quantity, quality and ambition of the work being undertaken by Mayo County Council to deliver under Housing for All. Once again I thank the committee for the invitation and we are happy to answer any questions members may have.