Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Carrigy for raising this important matter. He has been to the forefront in bringing this to my attention on numerous occasions in the context of his local area of Longford and Westmeath. I am aware he is determined to see the allocation for the voids programme increased. Certainly, it is a very worthy call in the context of how we manage vacancies and how they arise on a daily basis throughout the 150,000 social housing stock that is in the ownership of local authorities across the country. It is crucial and critical that the Government - I know Members of this House need to respond to that - looks at how we refurbish and re-let these properties as quickly as possible to families and individuals who are on the waiting list. They have been left without any urgency for far too long. We need an accelerator programme, but also the money and the funds to follow suit. I absolutely agree in that regard.

Notwithstanding that, there is a legal obligation on local authorities, under the relevant housing Act, to both manage and maintain housing stock on which the Department provides annual funding. We need to support local authorities in the preparation of vacant units for re-let under the voids programme. The voids funding is intended to supplement the legal requirement for funds to be provided from local authorities’ own resources. It is not a substitute for our resources or for inadequate budgetary provision for management and maintenance of the social housing stock by local authorities. The emphasis of the programme is on the works necessary to comply with the rental standard regulations supporting quick turn-around and re-letting times, with all major works deferred and carried out under planned maintenance over the life cycle of the asset.

On average, under the terms of the scheme, funding of €11,000 per dwelling is available. Where a local authority chooses to do work above this where necessary to comply with the rental standards, it can impact re-letting times and result in additional costs for local authorities. Where turn-around times are not impacted, however, local authorities can complete the suite of works applicable to the energy efficient retrofit programme on a vacant unit, meaning it can access both programmes, namely, the voids programme and the energy efficiency retrofit programme. Almost €60,000 is available in that regard.

Longford County Council indicated to our Department last year that, in some cases, additional works were necessary and it was not possible to complete energy upgrades under the retrofit programme. Officials from our Department were in contact with Longford County Council in 2023 in an effort to identify those additional requirements to support the local authority to year end. To that end, our Department approved additional funding of almost €1.5 million on the original allocation of €460,000, which included a contribution towards planned maintenance on tenanted properties. This additional funding allowed for the remediation of 54 dwellings at an average cost of €35,000 per dwelling, which equates to more than three times what was originally available. This uplift in funding was made available to ensure Longford County Council was in a strong position to reduce the levels of legacy vacancy, complete stock condition surveys this year and further support the move to planned maintenance. Longford County Council acknowledged confirmation of this and committed to implementing a properly functioning planned maintenance programme for the year. Furthermore, it was also acknowledged that Longford County Council has reduced vacancy from 6% to 3% as per NOAC performance indicators. I am aware it has been to the forefront in trying to get more stock back into use for families and individuals. Senator Carrigy has championed this on many occasions.