Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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1355. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the progress to date in the purchase or acquisition of derelict and abandoned homes under compulsory purchase order legislation in each local authority; the number of homes acquired by each such local authority such as in County Louth; the amount of funds released by his Department to each local authority to facilitate this purchase and renovation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46916/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides funding to local authorities to acquire a range of properties for social housing use.  The properties involved can range from those in good condition to those that need remediation and may have been vacant.  To ensure a local-led response to such work, responsibility for property acquisitions is delegated to local authorities.

To further assist local authorities pursuing vacant properties, my Department has introduced a Buy & Renew Scheme to encourage local authorities to acquire vacant properties that may suitable for social housing and facilitates their remediation.  As with standard acquisitions, local authorities have delegated responsibility to utilise the Buy & Renew Scheme as part of whatever blend of property acquisitions is appropriate to their area, given housing need and the availability of properties of different types.

Given that responsibility is delegated to local authorities for this work, my Department does not have the statistics sought by the Deputy differentiating between the different categories of property acquisitions undertaken by local authorities, or in relation to the use of compulsory purchase orders.  In 2018, my Department will gather and publish statistics on the property acquisitions undertaken in 2017 by local authorities and within those statistics, it will be possible to provide some information on the categories of acquisitions undertaken. 

Furthermore in relation to actions to tackle vacancy, I have asked the Chief Executives of all local authorities to draw up Vacant Homes Action Plans and, as a first step in this process, to undertake surveys to obtain a more accurate picture of the scale of vacancy in their areas, which would 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.

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