Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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668. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the progress that has been made by county councils in acquiring abandoned or boarded up houses by CPO or otherwise on the same procedures as those followed by Louth County Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3386/18]

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 introduced a Buy & Renew Scheme to facilitate local authorities in acquiring and remediating vacant properties that may be suitable for social housing. As with standard acquisitions, local authorities have delegated responsibility to utilise the Buy & Renew Scheme, as part of the blend of property acquisitions, as 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 detailed statistics differentiating between the different categories of property acquisitions undertaken by local authorities, but I am satisfied that local authorities are using the range of funding mechanisms available to them to acquire various properties, including those that have been vacant.