Written answers

Tuesday, 18 September 2018

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Local Authority Staff Data

Photo of Brendan  RyanBrendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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802. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount allocated to local authorities (details supplied) specifically to hire new staff for the housing departments in each of the years 2016, 2017 and to date in 2018; the number of new staff each housing department has hired based on this funding in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37590/18]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The accelerated delivery of housing, including social housing, is of critical importance to this Government. My Department has recognised the need to support local authorities in their efforts to increase both capacity and output in this regard. In addition to substantial capital and current funding provided under Rebuilding Ireland, additional dedicated co-ordinated support resources including the Housing Delivery Office, my Department is providing a range of additional staff related supports including:

- Local authorities have designated Vacant Homes Officers to act as a central point of contact and to provide information and advice for owners of vacant homes and also to deal with queries from members of the public in respect of private residential vacant properties in their administrative area. My Department has provided funding for each local authority (€50,000 per annum, for a period of two years (i.e. a total of €100,000 to each local authority for 2018 & 2019)) to support the work of a Vacant Homes Office. The provision of central funding will allow for focus to be given to the role of the Office in establishing a co-ordinated approach towards the implementation of their Vacant Homes Action Plans and will reinforce the capacity of the Department’s Vacant Homes Unit to liaise with and seek information/statistics from a dedicated contact point within each local authority. The Vacant Homes Office is expected to play a key role in the co-ordination of this work within the local authority.

- Earlier this year my Department advised local authorities of arrangements for the appointment (where required) of a dedicated staff member to provide assistance in seeking out potential properties; establishing relationships with local property agents and landlords; supporting those homeless households to exit emergency accommodation and secure a tenancy. An allowance towards the staffing cost of this officer is recoupable from the Department via the homeless services (‘Section 10’) recoupment arrangements.

- The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and a range of different leasing schemes funded by the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) all provide local authorities with administrative payments in respect of new households entering the schemes and for certain on-going monitoring and management expenses. The purpose of these payments is to recognise the resources required by local authorities in respect of the set up and management of tenancies under these programmes.

- Local authority in-house professional services assigned to the delivery of new capital funded social housing build projects can be recouped from the Department at a percentage of the approved tender cost, with the actual percentage depending on the services provided. Services covered include architectural and other design team professional services, contract monitoring and management and the assigned certifier role.

At a general level, section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authorities for which he or she is responsible.

My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers quarterly data on staff numbers in local authorities; however, the data gathered does not provide details in terms of the increases in staff in Council housing departments. Accordingly, the information requested is not available in my Department, but may be obtained directly from the individual local authorities concerned.

Since 1 January 2016, my Department has received 124 housing-related staff sanction requests from Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and South Dublin County Council, 120 of which have been approved, with 4 pending. Posts that are pending, in general, are awaiting supporting information prior to a final decision being taken.

Local authority 2016 2017 2018 @17/9 Total
Dublin City Council15 23 33 71
Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown County Council4 2 17 23
Fingal County Council2 8 15 25
South Dublin County Council5 0 0 5
Total per year 26 33 65 124

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