Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 525: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the annual home energy grant, payable through local authorities, can be spent in a local authority house that has been vacated due to a transfer or death of a tenant; and his plans to extend this scheme to existing tenants. [23780/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Under my Department's Social Housing Improvement Programme, funding of up to 90% of the approved cost is provided to Housing Authorities to undertake improvement works to occupied and vacant social housing units, including works to improve the energy efficiency and general standard of the houses concerned. Some €31 million is being made available for this purpose in 2011. My Department requested local authorities specifically to target vacant dwellings in 2011 with the objective of returning the maximum number of vacant units to productive use at reasonable cost. However, necessary improvement works to occupied houses will continue to be eligible for funding from within the allocations notified to individual authorities.