Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Cathaoirelach for selecting this Commencement matter. It is timely and perhaps even a bit premature given that Cabinet is today considering the Delivering Homes, Building Communities document, but that is for another day. We may hear something tomorrow.I welcome the Minister of State. I appreciate his coming here because this is an area in which he is directly involved and has vast experience. Also, he is a Minister of State in the relevant Department, which I appreciate and acknowledge.

This Commencement matter really arose from correspondence I received from the Minister, Deputy James Browne, dated 1 October 2025. It is a very positive letter. I thank the Minister for it and for his ongoing engagement. I have found him to be most effective and engaging regarding anything I have raised with him concerning his Department, just as I have found the Minister of State to be such. The Minister states in the letter that the programme for Government commits to introducing a new voids programme and that work is under way in the Department to roll out that programme. That is very important.

I am conscious, of course, that the Minister of State is going to launch, in the next day or two, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, with the aim of providing 90,000 starter homes over the five-year period. However, I am also conscious that there are thousands of social houses empty. I like to call social housing “public housing”, a phrase I prefer to use. The housing is a public asset. The homes are provided from public funds. It is important. There is not a day on which, like many Senators and councillors around the country, I do not receive calls to state there have been voids for a year, two years or three years. I walked the streets of Waterford, our beloved city, and was amazed by the voids and also empty private properties. Waterford is a classic example of a city that is really tackling the problem head-on. The Minister of State is a strong advocate in this regard, which I acknowledge.

When you have been years on a public housing list, you know every social house in the place because your hope and aspiration is that you will be in one of them one day. What is happening is unacceptable. There is a chronic lack of social housing, and social housing lists are continuing to grow. People are told they are put on a waiting list based on priority, and that is a matter for each local authority according to its social housing allocation plan. There are thousands of people in council houses up and down the country. We effectively have a housing assistance payment, HAP, that has been rendered useless. In the national press today, there is a story that in the past four weeks, only one of the 50 people approved for the HAP in the Meath County Council area was able to secure a HAP property. That is the scenario. I know that no one is here to vindicate or commend it. We all know we have a housing crisis and we look forward to the plans tomorrow.

My concern is about the number of vacant properties, the unoccupied units, the underused housing stock and the planned maintenance or lack thereof. The Minister of State will be aware that some local authorities are not maintaining their housing stock. I can confirm for the Minister of State, if he does not know it already, that some local authorities have not had officials visit their houses for over 30 years. Tenants I identified and spoke to in three local authority areas told me that although they have had tenancies for over 40 years, not once has any official entered their properties. Since it entails a landlord–tenant arrangement, this sounds very unsatisfactory to me. It would not be tolerated in the private sector. The Minister of State will be aware that I tried to bring in changes in this regard but did not have a lot of support. How and ever, let me refer to the refurbishment programme and the lack of funding. The city and county managers tell me there is a limited amount of funding per unit. What the Minister of State launches tomorrow may address some of these issues. Addressing them may be part of the plan or it may not, but I realise there is a Government commitment to tackle voids. I would really like progress on what the Minister referred to as the development of the programme in relation to voids. Where are we with that?

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Boyhan for raising what is an important matter. The programme for Government, as he rightly pointed out, commits to introducing a new programme to support the effective and speedy turnaround of vacated local authority social homes. My Department has been working on this matter and I expect a new programme that will further support the transition to a planned maintenance approach and the quicker turnaround of casual vacancies, to be rolled out early in the new year.

The new programme will build on the strong progress made in tackling local authority vacancy levels. This was supported and enabled by significant Exchequer funding in the past ten years, particularly since 2020. More than €360 million has been provided to local authorities since 2014, supporting the refurbishment and re-letting of some 26,000 social homes. This year alone, some €31 million was provided, targeting the turnaround of 1,900 social homes.

The programme focuses on the prompt turnaround and re-letting of vacant homes.It supports only those works necessary to comply with the housing standards for rented houses guidelines 2019. Non-essential works are not supported and should be carried out under the local authority's own planned maintenance programme, informed by stock condition surveys where all housing components are on an inspection, repair and replacement cycle. Local authority officials and elected members must ensure there is adequate funding provision for repairs and cyclical maintenance, using the significant rental income available to them, as part of their annual budgetary process. There is no upper cap on the amount that can be spent per home, providing the total amount averaged across all homes submitted by local authorities does not exceed €11,000. Where a local authority chooses to do works over and above those that are necessary to comply with statutory rental standards, it invariably impacts relay times and increases costs for the local authority. At a time of such need, this approach must be interrogated by local authority members.

In my work as Minister of State with responsibility for planning and local government, this is an area on which I place significant focus. Being frank, there are unacceptable discrepancies in local authority performance in this area. I have had some frank and honest conversations with executive teams in local authorities around the country. The NOAC performance indicators report for 2024 bears out this fact. It simply should not be the case that local authorities in Roscommon, Monaghan and Carlow are able to re-let local authority homes in under 16 weeks while local authorities such as those in Limerick, Kerry and Louth take over a year. The average re-letting time now stands at 35 weeks nationally and I am sure the Senator agrees that this must reduce. Every local authority has a responsibility in this area.

The funding that has been provided in the past decade or so has tackled a large number of long-term vacant stock and brought those properties back into use, paving the way for the transition to a more appropriate approach to housing maintenance, which is the planned maintenance approach the Senator referenced. Some €10 million has been ring-fenced for local authorities to commence and continue this transition from a largely response and voids-based approach to a planned maintenance approach based on planned work programmes informed by stock condition surveys. Given the significant level of funding over recent years, the vast majority of legacy vacancy issues should be addressed at this stage. Accordingly, local authorities should be better positioned to address casual vacancies and further transition to that planned approach to housing maintenance. We will continue to support local authorities in those endeavours in the time ahead.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State. He has demonstrated the benefit of having a line Minister with expertise and knowledge. I thank him for his robust, honest and frank response. There was a lot of meat and honesty in it, which is to be welcomed. I thank him. That again illustrates, as I have said previously, the importance of having the relevant Minister from the relevant Department before the House. This is a clear example of an excellent response. This is clearly a Minister of State who knows what he is talking about. I acknowledge that because it is important.

My one takeaway for the Minister of State relates to the lack of a cap. I note the point he makes. However, there are county managers saying they are controlled by the €11,000. The Minister of State has clearly stated the parameters and clarified the position. There may be a need for further guidance to the county councillors. They are hearing one thing and the managers are saying another. The Minister of State might consider whether it is appropriate to send an additional circular or provide further information. I would undertake to circulate such a thing. It is important that the Department has clarified that point.

I genuinely wish the Minister of State and the Government well with the new national housing plan, which is being discussed at Cabinet today. It will be launched tomorrow. It is entitled Delivering Homes, Building Communities. I recognise that all of us, as policymakers in these Houses, must unite and come together with one voice to deliver new homes for our communities. I wish the Minister of State well.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for his remarks. I appreciate them. As he knows, it is an area I know well from my 11 years having served on local authorities and the five years I sat on the Oireachtas joint committee with the Senator. I am being honest here.The performance by some local authorities in this space is unacceptable to me as Minister of State. I have had the honest and frank conversations. I have called out the best and worst performers in that NOAC report, but there are plenty in the middle as well that also need to up their game because an average relay time of 35 weeks at a time of such need for the public outside of these Houses of the Oireachtas is unacceptable. Local authorities have to drive efficiencies and performance in this space. They need to reduce their relay times. While they must ensure, obviously, that those properties are to an acceptable standard as per the regulations, if it is a weigh-up option between going over and above what is required and taking an extra 20 weeks to do so or doing what is required under the regulations and getting someone into that property at a time of such need, for me, the latter is my priority and that of the Minister, Deputy Browne. It is a message that I am delivering and will continue to deliver in local authorities around this country because it is what the public and politicians in this House and chambers around the country expect. I will support them in that.