Dáil debates
Thursday, 6 July 2023
Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions
Housing Provision
9:30 am
Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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7. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has a plan and budget to manage and maintain the social housing stock over time to ensure that the housing stock is kept in good condition; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33200/23]
Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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We talk a lot about all the houses we are building in this country. We talk about all the social housing we are building. I see it in Galway East, in Tuam and other places where housing estates are being built.
It is good. We are beginning to see the fruits of the labour. A concern I have is how we manage this housing stock so as to keep this costly asset in a condition to last for the next 40 or 50 years.
9:40 am
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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It is a very pertinent question. The management and maintenance of the local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, implementation of a planned maintenance programme - which will be important and on which I will expand - and carrying out responsive repairs, is a matter for each individual local authority, and in the main they do that job very well. The quality varies from county to county.
Local authorities and elected members have a very important role to play in this regard by making adequate budgetary provision for housing repairs and cyclical maintenance by utilising the housing rental income available to them as part of the annual budgetary process. Local authorities are working to transition from a largely response and voids-based approach to housing stock management and maintenance - which is important as by the end of this year we will have brought back about 8,500 void properties since the Government came into office - to a planned maintenance approach, which we have committed to in Housing for All. This will require the completion of stock condition surveys by all local authorities and the subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes.
My Department will continue to support local authorities in their work in this area. We have ring-fenced €5 million to support local authorities' transition to the planned maintenance approach in 2023. That will be a more proactive way of doing it. Much of our social housing stock is now with approved housing bodies too. We welcome that. They have their own maintenance programmes. While the transition is ongoing, we continue to provide voids funding under the 2023 programme to support the refurbishment and re-letting this year of a minimum of 2,300 vacant social homes, with funding of over €31 million available right now for voids and planned maintenance. If a local authority believes it can do more or has older voids, I want it to send submissions and we will not be found wanting in funding additional void work.
Furthermore, €87 million is available for energy-efficiency work in 2023. This programme will see a major plank of additional funding being made available to local authorities for planned maintenance works into the future.
Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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With all of that investment, the Minister is proving the point I am making. I do not believe the local authorities are equipped to take this on. The other aspect is tenants’ behaviour and how the tenants are being managed. In Galway, I think we have four housing liaison officers in the entire county. We are increasing our stock of houses. I have seen first hand where houses built in the 1980s were demolished three years ago because they fell into disrepair. I see housing estates where standards have dropped in terms of the tenants’ ability to take responsibility. When something starts to happen, standards drop and then the estate becomes not a nice one to live in. This is happening whether we like it or not. As well as planned maintenance, we need planned management of the tenancies and people on the ground who can manage them and call to them so that, if any issues arise, whether relationships between neighbours, a broken window or whatever it is, they are nipped in the bud before it becomes a lower standard.
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is right that estate management is really important. On Monday, I was in Galway city and county. We have approved in the housing Department alone 300 additional staff in our local authorities this year. Those posts are being filled. I was talking to the chief executive of the housing team in Galway city. Like any other sector, it is taking longer to find and employ people but those posts have been approved.
Since the Government came into office, the budgets the Deputy has rightly supported have put about €150 million into voids in our local authorities. The planned maintenance approach is important but where we get submissions from a local authority seeking additional staffing, particularly around estate management, they will be assessed positively. As we build up our housing stock, as we are seeing across the country, it will lead to more stock, more work required on maintenance and estate management to deal with issues which arise, as they do from time to time, from the very beginning and make sure we are building not just homes but communities.
Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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Absolutely. That last piece is effectively about prevention. Rather than trying to cure a problem, we prevent it. I agree there is much investment going in. That is where my concern would be. Look at some of the housing bodies. Clúid, for instance, did developments maybe 20 years ago, including one in Tuam, St. Jarlath’s Court. There is a manager full time on site. How can they afford to do it while the county council cannot afford to do it and their staff are run off their feet firefighting all the time? That building is in the same pristine condition as when it was handed over to them in 2000. I was involved in the construction of it. I can go in there and see it is completely clean, decoration is done, they have a plan and all of that, internally and externally. It is a credit to them but we need to be able to replicate that in the local authorities.
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I agree. We see fantastic developments across the country, not least in the Deputy's county. We support the ongoing maintenance of those financially. Estate management is crucial. Some local authorities for a number of years effectively got out of that role and are now getting back into it. I have met estate management teams across the country. That engagement with householders in our social housing estates is important and it has to be ongoing. It cannot just be if an issue arises. It is about managing the tenancies, the mix of demographics in estates and catering for the needs of the new residents of these estates. I have seen that done pretty well. The Deputy’s point is well made. The more new social homes we build, the more requirements there will be to have the human resources behind that to manage the estates. We are committed to doing that.