Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for being here for this matter. I wish to raise two specific issues with him. In the interest of brevity and clarity, because I tabled a parliamentary question on this very recently, I know exactly how many homes are purchased, how many are in train to purchase and exactly what is going on formally. I wish to bring to his attention what is actually happening to some of the families in my constituency.

I am currently working without about ten people who are at immediate risk of homelessness and who, for various reasons, are trying to get into the tenant in situ scheme or have recently been let down. One of these people was evicted three or four weeks ago and she and her four children are in one bedroom in Ballyfermot. She was originally from north County Dublin and she is now with her children in one bedroom with bunk beds in Ballyfermot. The tenant in situ scheme failed that woman and failed the landlord, whose patience and money ran out during that process. It was not a good experience. I have other people who are currently overholding and they are very worried.

I will read out an email sent to one of my constituents in March. It states:

Fingal County Council are not in a position to assess your tenant in situ application at this point because we are currently prioritising applicants who are at immediate risk of homelessness. I note your termination date is for July, which provides adequate time for you to source alternative accommodation through the HAP scheme.

Where are they getting that information? There are no HAP houses in my area. I do not know if there are any in the Minister of State’s area but there are definitely none in mine. It continues:

If you are not already a recipient of HAP, please contact [blah] ... Should you fail to secure alternative accommodation within eight of weeks or your termination date, please email NTQEnquries@fingal.ie and we can advise of your available options.

It is telling her she has to wait until eight weeks before she is homeless. Has the Minister of State ever bought or sold a house? Does he know anyone who has ever bought or sold a house in eight weeks? I do not. It is not possible. Even in a case where nobody is contesting it and nobody is in a chain, it is not possible. The council is leaving it until the last possible moment with this woman. It is telling her to wait until she is eight weeks out. It is basically telling her to wait until there is absolutely nothing that it will be able to do. The landlord is selling for a valid reason and he wants to sell to the council. The house is an area where it has previously bought, so there should not be an issue.

I will read correspondence from a landlord:

I am a landlord in Swords. I have been renting a house to a family – two parents and three kids – since 2017. My financial situation has changed and I have to sell the house. Their kids are the local primary school less than 100 m up the road.

He applied to the tenant in situ scheme last year. This was completed in November 2023. The eviction notice was dated 20 April 2024. The house was assessed. Just two days ago, he learned the following from Fingal County Council:

Following a full review of your property, including the building survey, we have decided not to proceed with the acquisition of this property. This decision was made taking into account issues identified with the building survey and the necessary works and repairs that would be required to the property.

He says he is open to discussion to keep the family in the house. He has asked Fingal County Council what the issues are in order that he can rectify them and work with the council to prevent two adults and three children becoming homeless because he is aware of the situation. However, he is being told that the information cannot be released because the report is commercially sensitive. He told me that he was trying to help this family not to become another statistic for homelessness but that he also could not afford to keep that house.

I understand what the headline figures say. However, in real life, ten families are about to be made homeless, and one already has been. This can be added to the list. Can I get some information about what guidance has issued from the Department? It does not seem to happen in other areas but why will they not release reports when landlords are willing to work with them?

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I will read the script and then come back with the specifics. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.

Under Housing for All, there is provision for 200 social housing acquisitions each year. However, with increased pressures on housing and the exit of landlords from the market, the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, reinstated delegated sanction to local authorities in April 2022 to acquire social housing properties for a number of specific priority categories. One of the priority categories was to address homelessness, which would include 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.

For 2023 and again in 2024, the Government agreed there would be an increased provision for social housing acquisitions and the Department will provide funding for local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social homes. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, specifically requested that local authorities be proactive in acquiring properties where a HAP or RAS tenant had received a notice of termination due to a landlord’s intention to sell the property. The most recent circular issued to local authorities in March, setting out these revised arrangements and providing each local authority with a provisional allocation for social housing acquisitions in 2024. Local authorities have delegated sanction to deliver 1,300 additional acquisitions, subject to those acquisitions being within acquisition cost guidelines issued by the Department.

In 2023, Fingal County Council had an allocation to acquire 125 second-hand social homes. Fingal surpassed the allocation and acquired 234 homes, of which 210 were properties where the tenant received a notice of termination. Fingal also delivered 386 new-build social homes during that period.

It is a matter for individual local authorities to identify suitable acquisitions in line with local circumstances and their social housing allocations policy. The time required to compete a social housing acquisition can vary depending on the circumstances involved. Property purchases can be delayed for various reasons, such as title difficulties, which the Deputy referenced, planning issues, outstanding property taxes, general contractual conditions of sale not in place and so on. As the process is also reliant on timely progress from the vendor’s legal sales agent, timeframes vary from purchase to purchase. Local authorities take appropriate steps to ensure their first response will be to support households to try to prevent homelessness in cases where tenants have been served with a notice of termination by their landlord. It is important to acknowledge that the tenant in situ scheme has been a key measure in preventing homelessness and, as such, has mitigated such impacts for many households in 2023.

The Deputy raised the issue of ten families being at immediate risk of homelessness. Again, that is what the tenant in situ scheme is for. If the owner of the property is willing to sell and the opportunity is there to do so, it has been a good scheme. With regard to the specific cases the Deputy highlighted, she is correct that there are not sufficient HAP tenancies out there. They are simply not there in the numbers that are required, so I absolutely appreciate that.

If there is anything we can help with in the Department with Fingal County Council in trying to help these families, we would appreciate the details being provided to us and we can see what we can do to support them.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I genuinely thank the Minister of State for that, but there is a systemic issue here. I can give him the list and the names right now, and that is fine.

Will the Minister of State specifically address the letter that has been issued informing the tenant she must wait until she is eight weeks out? In his response the Minister of State stated "Local authorities take appropriate steps to ensure their first response will be to support households to try to prevent homelessness in cases where tenants have been served with a notice of termination." That is not happening. Their first response is supposed to be to help tenants but actually, their first response is to tell them to go and see if they can find a HAP house.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I am not going to use the kind of language that is rolling around in my head now but this is incredibly frustrating. This is supposed to be a homelessness prevention measure. Imagine what a young woman with her child is thinking when she gets a letter like that, telling her to wait until she is eight weeks away from homelessness and then the local authority will engage with the landlord. The landlord wants to sell the property. I know the local authority cannot buy every house. Probably, part of me wishes it could, to prevent homelessness. However, they cannot and I get that but the operation of this specific policy, that is, to wait until a tenant is eight weeks out from the termination date, effectively guarantees that person is going to be homeless for the simple reason that there will not be enough time to complete the sale. The landlord knows that. Logic dictates that if a landlord gets that letter saying he or she has to wait until eight weeks before the termination notice, that person knows it is not going to be completed. The Minister of State knows it is not going to be completed. I ask the Minister of State specifically to examine that. I understand the local authority does not have to give a reason for not purchasing a property but where it does, can a landlord challenge that? Can the landlord ask for specific information? I cannot accept that it is somehow commercially sensitive to share that information with the landlord when in the case I highlighted, the landlord himself is saying he will do the repairs if he can but he needs to be told what they are. However, he has been told it is commercially sensitive. I ask the Minister of State, rather than going into specific individual cases, and we can do that, will he look at those two cases in particular? That is coming directly from the council. Will his Department look at that?

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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There are specific questions here particularly in regard to that timeframe. That is a valid question to ask and certainly we can ask the Department to look at that. In regard to the second question, I cannot give the answer to it here, so again I will ask the Department to look at that, about challenging those decisions, if that is okay.

Fingal County Council has been quite progressive. In quarter 1 this year it already acquired 25 properties where tenants received a notice of termination. Fingal County Council has been very progressive in delivering on the tenant in situ scheme but as I said, if there are specific cases that may need a bit of help, the local authority obviously has the delegated function to do this and appears to be delivering it successfully. However, if there are specific cases where there are logjams or issues affecting the transfer or the sale of the house, in particular the issues mentioned by the Deputy in relation to the local authority asking the tenant to seek a HAP tenancy, if there are none, they really are in an awful bind. I appreciate that. Certainly, we will take these issues back to the Department and revert to the Deputy.