Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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278. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps his Department is taking in collaboration with Dublin City Council and the three county councils to get the 40,000 vacant homes in Dublin back into use (details supplied). [44513/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I wrote to the Chief Executives of all local authorities on 2 August 2017, requesting them to commence the drawing up of Vacant Homes Action Plans for their functional areas and to set ambitious but realistic targets of the number of vacant homes that can be brought back into use, whether for private sale or rent or for social housing purposes.

As a first step in the process and having regard to the fact that the Census 2016 data on vacancy was a snapshot of the situation on 24 April 2016, I requested local authorities to undertake surveys in their areas in order to obtain a more accurate and up-to-date picture of the scale of vacancy in their areas to better inform local actions to bring as many vacant properties back into use as soon as possible. 

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the levels of vacancy recorded as part of the Census count in April 2016 have been significantly reduced, particularly in urban areas where many habitable homes and buildings have since been occupied.  This underpins the importance of having an accurate picture of what accommodation is vacant and potentially available for early re-use.

Given the high levels of housing demand in the main urban areas, I requested that these Action Plans should be devised by the local authorities in the Dublin area and the other four main cities - Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford - by the end of October 2017, while also setting a deadline for all other County Action Plans to be completed by the end of 2017. My Department subsequently wrote to all Chief Executives on 25 August 2017, providing advice on the broad structure that such Action Plans should take. 

Supplementary to my letter to Chief Executives on 2 August last, I also announced a range of other initiatives and actions to be taken to quickly facilitate the delivery of vacant homes back into use:

- a dedicated Empty Homes Unit to be established within my Department to drive and co-ordinate actions at central and local level and to support local authorities in their actions;

- all Chief Executives were requested to designate vacant home officers in their local authorities to examine Census 2016 and other vacancy data in order to identify - through their Vacant Homes Action Plans - priority "vacant hot-spot areas" and properties that can be quickly brought back into use;

- all local authorities were requested to maximise the quick turnaround of their vacant social housing stock between lettings through more efficient ongoing maintenance and upgrading of their properties so as to minimize "down-time" and quicker identification of new tenants through, for example, the choice-based letting initiative; and

- prioritising the development and adoption of exempted development planning regulations to allow the change of use of vacant commercial and over-the-shop premises to residential use without having to go through the planning process.

In addition, my Department has a number of funding schemes in place, particularly the Repair and Leasing Scheme and the Buy and Renew Scheme, to support local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies in bringing vacant housing stock into use for social housing purposes.

Furthermore my Department has recently established a multi-disciplinary working group to prepare additional building control guidance for local authorities and the construciton sector with a view to better facilitating the reuse or development of under-used or vacant buildings within the context of the existing building control regulatory requirements.

My Department is continuing to engage on an ongoing basis with local authorities, including the four Dublin local authorities, with a view to progressing measures to bring as many vacant and underutilised properties as possible back into use.