Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Seanadóir as an ábhar seo a chur faoi bhráid an tSeanaid. We know that vacancies arise on a daily basis in the approximately 146,000 social homes owned by local authorities. It is critical to the Government and Members of this House that such homes are refurbished and re-let to a family or individual on the waiting list as soon as possible.

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities under the relevant Housing Acts to manage and maintain their housing stock, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provides annual funding support to local authorities in preparing units for re-let under the voids programme. The emphasis of the programme is on minimum refurbishment works to comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019, supporting quick turnaround and re-letting times, with all major works deferred and carried out under planned maintenance over the life cycle of the asset. Of note is Longford County Council's average re-let time of almost 100 weeks, as per the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, performance indicator 2022.

There is no upper cap on the amount that can be spent on an individual dwelling under the Department’s voids programme, providing the total amount averaged across all dwellings submitted by a local authority does not exceed €11,000. Where a local authority chooses to do works over and above those necessary to comply with the rental standards, it can impact re-let times and result in additional costs for the local authority. Additional funding is also available where turnaround times are not impacted as local authorities can complete the suite of works applicable to the energy efficiency retrofit programme on a vacant unit with funding up to a maximum of €48,850 available, meaning that, across both programmes of voids and energy efficiency, almost €60,000 is available.

Longford County Council has indicated that in some cases it has cost more to remediate to the minimal rental standards and it was not possible to complete energy upgrades under the retrofit programme. In this regard, officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage have been in contact with Longford County Council in an effort to identify additional units and funding requirements to support the local authority to year end. A submission from the council was received and is being reviewed. A further response will issue to the council presently.