Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important matter. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the position of vacant homes officers in our local authorities.

The national vacant housing reuse strategy was published by my Department in 2018 and since then my Department has provided funding to each local authority of €50,000 per annum. This funding is to support the work of a vacant homes office, including a vacant homes officer, for each local authority.

It is important to say that the allocation of staff within a local authority is an executive matter for the chief executive of that local authority. Each of the 31 local authorities has a vacant homes office, but currently only three local authorities have one person working in a full-time capacity as a vacant homes officer. In the remaining 28 local authorities the officer appointed as a vacant homes officer carries out additional duties in their planning and housing divisions. In some authorities, more than one part-time officer carries out the duties of the vacant homes officer.

In some local authorities, with restrictions that were imposed due to Covid 19, vacant homes officers were not in a position to carry out all of the duties that would normally be assigned to them. For example, travel around a local authority area to carry out inspections of vacant properties has not always been possible. As a result, some of the vacant homes officers were assigned alternative duties within the councils that they were able to carry out while the restrictions were in place.

The activities of vacant homes officers are comprehensive with their main focus being bringing vacant properties back into use throughout the country. The vacant homes officers provide assistance to property owners on how to best utilise available supports such as the repair and lease, buy and renew and long-term leasing schemes. The role and range of duties of the vacant homes office and officers within each local authority includes, but is not limited to, tasks that support the implementation of local authority vacant homes action plans; undertaking initial vacancy assessment exercises and drilling into available CSO and GeoDirectory data; carrying out or co-ordinating visual inspections and assessments of residential properties in their administrative area; identification of and contacting the registered owners of the properties deemed to be vacant from inspection; serving as a contact point for dissemination of advice, assistance and information on residential vacancy to members of the public, including landlords; and the collation and timely provision of vacant homes data to my Department.

Each of the 31 local authorities has prepared a vacant homes action plan for its administrative area. The vacant homes action plan identifies the scale of vacant homes in their jurisdiction and sets ambitious but realistic targets of the number of vacant homes that can ultimately be brought back into use. To support this work, my Department has facilitated a number of seminars to allow the network of vacant homes officers meet with relevant departmental officials, ensuring that information on reactivating vacant homes into liveable housing stock is made available to both the Department and to all vacant homes officers in the 31 local authorities

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