Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue and giving me an opportunity to set out the extensive range of measures the Government has introduced to allow for the reactivation of long-term vacant residential dwellings into the liveable housing stock.

An overarching action within Pillar 5 of Rebuilding Ireland is a commitment to develop a national vacant housing reuse strategy, which I published in July 2018. The strategy strives to provide a targeted, effective and co-ordinated approach to identifying and tackling vacancy throughout Ireland. My Department and local authorities have been proactive in dealing with vacant properties with all local authorities, having prepared vacant home action plans. In addition, a number of schemes are available to incentivise reactivating appropriate dwellings into the liveable housing stock.

We continually examine new ways of reducing the number of vacant residential dwellings. For example, when the initial national roll-out of the innovative repair-and-lease scheme did not yield the results hoped for, we examined it and made improvements to its terms to make it more desirable to those who wish to bring their vacant property back into use. Correspondingly, the buy-and-renew scheme also has strong potential to purchase and reuse empty dwellings where properties that are suitable for social housing use are available and, therefore, it is a valuable companion to the repair and leasing scheme.

Mayo County Council is committed to utilising the aforementioned schemes. Of the 80 applications made to it in respect of the repair-and-lease scheme, the council is engaging with the owners of 42 properties, while 12 agreements to lease have been signed. Three homes have been completed under buy-and-renew and the council is assessing a further ten homes. Similarly, nine homes have been compulsorily purchased by Mayo County Council in 2019 for housing. Three of these are being considered for progression under the buy-and-renew scheme. Mayo County Council is one of the local authorities that participated in a pilot field survey on vacancy to assess the level of long-term vacant residential homes. Having visually inspected some 1,065 properties in their administrative area, some 61 homes were identified as being vacant over the six-month period of the survey. This equates to a vacancy rate of 5.2%, which is in line with what could be expected to allow churn in a normal housing market. The council will aim to engage with the owners of the 61 homes with a view to getting them reactivated as part of the housing stock.

The Council has also developed the website vacanthomes.ie, on behalf of the local government sector, to serve as a central portal for individuals anonymously to log possible vacant homes in order that local authorities can follow up with the registered owners. The website has proved a useful tool in aiding local authorities identify vacant homes, with the latest statistics indicating that almost 3,000 properties have been registered on vacanthomes.ieto date. Aside from the reactivation of privately-owned vacant homes, the Department supports the comprehensive maintenance and remediation of local-authority-owned vacant housing stock by way of the voids programme. Since the outset of the programme in 2014, and in addition to its own resources, Mayo County Council has been provided with funding of €1.456 million to bring some 320 vacant homes back to productive use. Some 57 homes, or 2.7% of Mayo County Council's housing stock, are vacant, with 13 currently having a tenancy offered and a further eight due to be the subject of offers in the coming weeks.Following a call for proposals for 2019, Mayo County Council submitted 32 properties for inclusion in the voids programme seeking funding of €225,000. Allocations for the voids programme are due to issue shortly.

Both centrally and at local level, we are committed to optimising the existing housing stock and, in that context, we will continue to review all initiatives with a view to offering the best supports to those who wish to bring vacant homes back into use.