Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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277. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the steps he will take to bring vacant houses back into the housing market in view of the census 2016 figures published which revealed that there are 7,493 vacant houses in County Tipperary of which 3,020 are vacant for more than five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23986/17]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Pillar 5 of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is specifically focused on Utilising Existing Housing Stock, with a key objective of ensuring that the existing vacant housing stock throughout the country and across all forms of tenure, in both the public and private sectors, is used to the optimum degree possible. In this regard, Action 5.1 of Rebuilding Ireland commits to the development of a National Vacant Housing Re-Use Strategy, informed by Census 2016 data, to:

- inform the compilation of a register of vacant units across the country,

- identify the number, location and reasons for longer-term vacancies (i.e. over 6 months) in high demand areas, and

-  set out a range of actions to bring vacant units back into reuse.

To this end, the Housing Agency, which has lead responsibility for co-ordinating the development of the Strategy, established a working group in September 2016, comprising senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and from the Housing Agency itself to inform the Strategy. The Group is due to report in the coming weeks.

Ahead of finalisation of the Strategy, it is important to note that my Department has already introduced a number of significant measures under Pillar 5 of Rebuilding Ireland to incentivise the increased use of vacant housing stock to help meet the needs of those in receipt of social housing assistance.  These initiatives include the Repair and Leasing Scheme, through which it is anticipated that up to 3,500 homes will be secured for social housing over the period to 2021 supported by a budget of €140m, the Buy and Renew Scheme with a €25m budget for 2017 and increasing thereafter to purchase and renew up to 500 housing units in need of remediation and make them available for social housing use, and the €70m Housing Agency acquisitions fund which will target the purchase of some 1,600 homes from the vacant property portfolios of financial institutions and investment companies over the period to 2020 for social housing use.