Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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58. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will provide an updated list, broken down by local authority, of all long-term voids by quarter, and the number of these voids that will be returned to stock and the cost. [28702/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department has provided €60 million over the two year period 2014 to 2015 to support local authorities in returning over 5,000 vacant units to productive use. To date in 2016, €24 million has been allocated for the remediation of over 1,300 units. This funding, therefore, will bring the number of units remediated to well in excess of 6,000 between 2014 and 2016; these units are additional to those dealt with by local authorities themselves under normal routine maintenance and pre-letting repairs. Clearly, the strong level of funding provided by my Department and the work undertaken by local authorities in tackling the backlog of vacant units that had accumulated, has resulted in a reduced 1-2% rate of vacancy reported by some local authorities. The table shows the figures for 2014 and 2015. The 2016 programme is underway and the details and costs of the completed units will be available once all claims have been received and processed.