Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 42: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the practice of Dublin City Council housing people in units which have not been properly refurbished, without furnishing or essential fittings; and the measures being taken to ensure turnaround times are not being manipulated by supplying applicants with such housing. [15642/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Local authority dwellings are subject to the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008, amended in 2009, which describe the furnishing and fitting required to be present in a rented house. Accommodation let by a local authority is exempt from the requirements for food preparation, storage and laundry purposes, as the tenant usually provides these goods, retaining ownership of them when they move to new accommodation. I am not aware of Dublin City Council following a practice that is contrary to these regulations.

Under section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, the management and maintenance of the local authority housing stock, including the compilation and funding of ongoing maintenance programmes, is a matter for individual authorities. My Department's Social Housing Investment Programme provides capital funding to local authorities each year in respect of a range of measures to improve the standard and overall quality of their social housing stock. The measures range from large-scale regeneration projects to smaller estate-wide remedial works, the carrying out of repairs and refurbishment works to individual properties and the provision of adaptations or extensions to meet the needs of particular tenants. In addition to the capital allocation provided for regeneration in Ballymun, allocations totalling almost €28 million have been notified to Dublin City Council in respect of their social housing improvement programmes for 2011.