John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Hearne for raising this matter. I assure him the Minister and I and our Department take it very seriously. It is important to note there are just over 150,000 local authority-owned social properties in this State, which have an estimated market value of more than €25 billion. The proper management and maintenance of this valuable State asset is a very important matter. Of equal importance is the requirement that local authority tenants occupying those properties and paying their weekly rent live in homes that provide good comfort levels for their occupants.

In accordance with section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, local authorities are legally responsible for the management and maintenance of their housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs. Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the rental standard regulations 2019. Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their own stock, the Department of housing provides annual funding support to local authorities for management and maintenance under a number of grant programmes such as the planned maintenance, or voids, programme, the energy efficiency retrofit programme and the disabled person grants programme, with the selection of homes and nature and priority of works for inclusion in the programmes a matter for the local authority.

From 2013 until the end of 2024, Exchequer funding of more than €59 million was provided to support local authority work in this area. Furthermore, funding is available under the regeneration programme. This funding will support ongoing projects, with a focus on building new homes as well as the refurbishment and rebuilding of some of the oldest flat complexes in Dublin city and local authority estates in various parts of the country. For 2025, €50 million has been made available under this programme.

As is the case across all of our housing stock, local authorities continue to receive and address repair requests in a standard manner. Furthermore, the Department of housing will continue to support local authorities in their work in this area. In particular, I note all 31 of the local authorities are now live on the new asset management ICT system, which provides the ability to carry out and gather the data on stock condition surveys which will inform future work programmes. To that end, €10.1 million has been ring-fenced to support these surveys and subsequent works arising.

In addition, I want to see best practice adopted with regard to the turning around and re-letting of council properties. This is a matter which the Deputy rightly raises and I have addressed on the floor of the House previously. It certainly should not be the case that it takes some local authorities up to a year to re-let a property, while others can turn a property around in between 12 and 14 weeks. That is an issue I interrogate when I visit local authorities. Contrary to the comments the Deputy made on the in-house teams, which are important for the ongoing maintenance work, the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, indicator reports show that local authorities that have put frameworks in place to enable the quick turnaround of properties are able to turn properties around much quicker.

The Department is open to suggestions. We need to see properties turned around and re-let and they need to be of good quality and to a good standard for tenants.

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