Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I agree the debate we had was intense. As he noted, this is about keeping people in their homes.

Housing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 units per year up to 2030, comprising the delivery of 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost rental homes. The strategy is supported by an investment package of more than €4 billion per annum through an overall combination of €12 billion in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5 billion in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5 billion through the Housing Finance Agency.

Under Housing for All, the Government will deliver 47,600 new-build social homes and 3,500 social homes through long-term leasing in the period 2022 to 2026. Our clear focus is to increase the stock of social housing through new-build projects delivered by local authorities and approved housing bodies. Under the strategy, there is provision for 200 social housing acquisitions each year, outside of the tenant in situscheme. However, with increased pressures on housing and the exit of landlords from the market, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage reinstated delegated sanction to local authorities in April 2022 to acquire social housing properties for a number of specific categories, including properties that allow persons to exit or prevent homelessness.

For 2023, the Government has agreed there will be increased provision for social housing acquisitions and the Department will fund local authorities to acquire up to 1,500 social homes. This represents an increase of 1,300 on the original target for acquisitions. Local authorities have delegated sanction to deliver the 1,300 additional acquisitions, subject to those acquisitions being within the acquisition cost guidelines issued by the Department.

One of the priority categories was to address homelessness, which includes the acquisition of a property to exit a household from emergency accommodation or the acquisition of a property that would prevent a household from becoming homeless. The Minister specifically requested that local authorities be proactive in acquiring properties where a HAP or RAS tenant had received a notice of termination due to the landlord’s intention to sell the property. A circular also issued to local authorities last week, setting out these revised arrangements.

Turning to the specific point the Deputy raised, the practical operation of transfer lists is a matter for each local authority to manage on the basis of its own scheme for letting priorities. The making of such schemes is a reserved function of the local authority and, as such, is a matter for the elected members in each county and city council. In instances of inter-authority social housing acquisitions, local authorities collaborate with each other on a case-by-case basis.

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The City and County Management Association, CCMA, has advised that local authorities will collaborate on situations where a local authority tenant is in a HAP tenancy in another local authority area. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will work closely with the CCMA on these measures.

If the Deputy encounters particular instances, I suggest that he initially make contact with the respective local authorities and then bring them to the attention of the Department. The ultimate objective here is to keep people in their homes. For many of the people in question, the property they are living in under HAP has been their home for many years. This is a matter of which I am conscious every day.

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