Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, is very welcome.

Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein)
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Briefly, I wish the Irish under-17s well. It was nil-all ten minutes into their game. It is a good time for Irish football at the moment. Hopefully, that will continue today.

Last week, the Government launched its overdue housing plan, which is not so much a new plan but a new packaging of the failed plan of the previous Government. It does not offer any meaningful changes. There is no change of course and no recognition that Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's unwillingness to invest in public housing and reliance on short-term solutions has resulted in a complete housing disaster. Thousands are homeless, hundreds of thousands are living in inadequate, overcrowded or overpriced conditions and an entire generation has been locked out of home ownership and financial stability. We are in a housing emergency, and the Government needs to start treating this crisis with real urgency.

One specific issue that is the cause of huge concern, particularly in the inner city, is the number of voids across Dublin. Public housing units lie vacant and derelict for months and often years. In October, there were 353 vacant public homes across the city awaiting refurbishment. Dozens more publicly owned properties are lying derelict, with no plan or timeframe for refurbishment. A certain level of vacancy is normal for a landlord the size of Dublin City Council - that is acknowledged - but boarded-up homes lying empty for years at a time is not a symptom of a system working as intended. The council has pennies at its disposal to get these homes back into working order. It often costs up to €30,000 or €40,000 to refurbish a single flat, which the council is required to pay for out of its pocket. It can then reclaim only a fraction of the total cost from the Department of housing. This does not add up in terms of Dublin City Council trying to push on and deal with voids. The Government needs to ensure the funding is there for councils that are looking to bring voids back into use a lot more quickly.

The Dublin City Council's bare-bones budget can only stretch so far. Unsurprisingly, the properties that require significant investment to bring back into use are often idle for years at a time, with funding only going to the most straight-forward projects. Likewise, in the context of the Iveagh Trust on Kevin Street, an approved housing body stated earlier this year that it has 79 long-term voids. That is in a relatively small development.That is 79 units that could be used to house local families but which will lie empty and derelict due to the lack of funding for refurbishment until the trust can secure a grant from the State. In the middle of a housing crisis, it is scandalous that the State can allow any level of dereliction or long-term vacancy in social housing. These properties should be used to improve people's lives and prevent homelessness.

We urgently need a funding mechanism that is up to the task of ending dereliction and that will cover the full cost of renovation, as well as a dedicated unit within the Department of housing to tackle vacancy and dereliction. The waiting time on the social housing list in Dublin is already over a decade. Anybody contacting me will be waiting up to ten years. It is heartbreaking for people living in the conditions that many are living in and having to wait that length of time. Every home is desperately needed, and the Government needs to act to ensure public or socially owned properties are used to their greatest benefit.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Andrews for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne.

Critically, the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, implementing planned maintenance programmes and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters solely for each individual local authority under the Housing Act 1966. Local authorities are also statutorily obliged to ensure all of their tenanted properties comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. That said, and notwithstanding that local authority officials and elected representatives are responsible for making adequate funding provision for repairs and cyclical maintenance using the significant rental income available to them, the Department of housing provides annual funding under the current planned maintenance and voids programme to complement local authority works. The programme focuses on the prompt turnaround and re-letting of vacated homes. To this end, it supports only works necessary to comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations. Non-essential works are not supported, as these should be undertaken under the local authority’s own planned maintenance programme.

Over €91 million has been provided to Dublin City Council since 2014, supporting the refurbishment and re-let of some 5,700 social homes. A further €4 million will be provided to support the prompt turnaround of 348 casual vacancies under the programme this year. The funding provided to local authorities over the last decade or so has tackled a large number of long-term vacant stock and brought them back into use. This has helped pave the way for local authorities to transition to a more appropriate approach to housing maintenance, involving full stock condition surveys of all local authority homes, strategic and informed planned maintenance work programmes, and better value for money by tackling large numbers of homes in single contracts rather than home by home. Some €10 million has been ring-fenced for local authorities to commence and continue the transition from a largely responsive and voids-based approach to a planned maintenance approach based on planned work programmes. Some €1.8 million of this is available to Dublin City Council.

Ultimately, data on the quantum of vacant local authority and approved housing body social homes are a matter for, and can be obtained from, the respective authorities and AHBs. That said, local authority social housing stock statistics are published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, in its annual reports on performance indicators in local authorities. These reports provide a range of data, including vacancy levels and average turnaround times for re-letting properties. The latest report for 2024 indicates that the Dublin City Council vacancy rate stands at 2.28%, with an average turnaround time of 23 weeks. This a good bit below the average of 2.75% and 35 weeks, respectively, across local authorities.

Responsibility for managing and maintaining local authority social homes remains the responsibility of the respective authorities. That said, the Department of housing will continue to complement local authority efforts in the coming years, securing a strategic approach to managing social homes. To this end, a revamped programme focusing on the prompt turnaround of casual vacant stock, reducing vacancy rates and turnaround times further, will be rolled out early in 2026.

Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein)
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One issue that residents, and tenants of Dublin City Council, have is that when a void is returned to use to a family or an individual, it is done up and renovated and the new tenant or tenants have a nice door that meets certain standards. It is right that they should have a proper door and they should be looked after. If, however, you are a tenant living next door to the tenant or tenants who have just moved into their new home, you could have been paying significant rent for 30 or 40 years and your door could be hanging off and could be poorly insulated and in bad condition. Yet, the council will not replace your door with a door that properly insulates the home and reduces the costs of heating it. Tenants are deeply frustrated about this. Why should a tenant who has been paying rent for years be deprived of a door that actually does what it is supposed to do?

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Chris Andrews again for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. The Government has invested significantly in a stock improvement programme over recent years, particularly with regard to voids, with €91 million provided to Dublin City Council alone since 2014. This year, €31 million has been provided to local authorities, with €5.8 million allocated to Dublin City Council. Notwithstanding this support, it is first and foremost a matter for the local authority to ensure that adequate funding provision is made for repairs and cyclical maintenance as part of the annual budgetary process. The funding provided by the Department of housing supplements rather than replaces the local authority's self-funding.

A new voids programme will be introduced in the new year. There will be a renewed focus and a prompt turnaround in re-letting of casual vacant homes. This and works that do not need to be immediately addressed should be carried out under the local authority's own planned maintenance programme, informed by stock condition surveys, to ensure that all housing components are inspected rather than there being a repair-and-replacement cycle.

On the particular point the Senator raises, I have just two comments. I expect this is a matter he has already taken up with Dublin City Council. I suggest that he write to the Minister directly on the point he makes in order that we can take it up directly with Dublin City Council. He will appreciate, however, that the priority is getting homes that are not occupied re-let under the voids programme. The point he makes may be something we can take up with Dublin City Council.