Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. I thank him for taking this Commencement matter, which relates to the voids programme. Under the Housing for All action plan, each local authority was targeted by the Department to reduce vacancy rates within its council housing stock. Longford County Council was given a target of reducing its 2021 vacancy rate of 7.2% to 3.5% in 2023. This was an ambitious target that was set for the local authority but I know the council was fully committed to achieving it and significant progress has been made on achieving the target in recent years.

We have all heard about price inflation. I will give an example of some of the costs that have increased over the period. The Minister of State should be cognisant of the fact that the grant per house for retrofitting is €11,000. In 2020 the average cost expended was €20,865. In 2022, it was €35,926, which comprises an increase of 72% over the three-year period. In 2023, those costs are projected to be an average of €45,280, due in particular to construction costs inflation. That is coming not just from the local authority but also the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, who are the experts in this regard and are able to put forward those costs. The maximum reimbursement from the Department to the local authority is €11,000 per dwelling, with additional costs to be funded from the local authority's own resources.

To give an idea of the shortfall that has created for the local authority from 2021 to 2023, in 2021 the shortfall was €623,000; in 2022, it was €1.025 million and; the projected shortfall for 2023, based on delivering 71 houses back into stock, is €2.4 million. The reality is that it is not sustainable for any local authority to keep providing the services for taxpayers in Longford. We were the first local authority in the country to increase the local property tax, LPT by 15% in 2019, when we ring-fenced the funding for regeneration projects within the three districts in Longford. Others have followed. We locked in an increase of 15% for this year and for 2024. The elected members in the local authority increased the rates by 5% for this year, to bring in additional funding to help meet the rising costs that are being put on it. The reality is that we must take action if we want Longford County Council to hit its targets, which it is doing.I was at a meeting of the Oireachtas housing committee council officials attended last January. They were questioned by members of the committee and asked to come back in 12 months to show the council had reduced the number of voids, which it has done. It hit its targets at a severe cost to the local authority. Longford County Council needs to be reimbursed by the Department for those costs in order that we can maintain the other services delivered by the local authority at the standards we are entitled to. I would appreciate a positive reply from the Minister of State for members and the executive of Longford County Council and that funding will be put in place to cover those increased costs.