Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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250. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide an update on the refurbishment of vacant council houses under the Government's housing strategy, including the number under refurbishment, planned for refurbishment, completed and remaining vacant; and the local authority in which they are situated. [25347/15]

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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251. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a detailed breakdown of the average costs incurred in the refurbishment of local authority housing in the years 2013 and 2014 and to date in 2015. [25348/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 250 and 251 together.

The Social Housing Strategy 2020states that funding for local authorities to return vacant social housing units to productive use in 2015 and onwards will be linked to local authorities putting in place on-going maintenance programmes.In 2014, a national programme was rolled out with up to €30,000 funding available per unit. 2,333 vacant social housing units were returned to productive use at an average cost of €11,278 per unit. The 2015 programme has just been announced and allocations have been made for 1,119 units at an estimated average cost of €18,039. There was no centrally funded programme in place in 2013.

General statistics on local authority housing stock, including vacant social housing units, are published annually by the Local Government Management Agency. The most recent statistics are the Service Indicators in Local Authorities 2013which are available on the Agency’s website at the following link: