Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

34. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has undertaken a review of the resources and personnel in local authorities' housing departments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38902/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department provides the local authority housing sector with significant resources to provide necessary housing and planning supports. Local authorities generate income from a variety of sources including commercial rates, charges for goods and services and funding from Central Government. Across all schemes and funding programmes, my Department provided a total of €1.26bn to local authorities in 2015, €1.45bn in 2016 and €1.849bn in 2017. My Department works closely with all local authorities to ensure the local government sector can meet existing and emerging challenges.

In terms of local authority staffing, my Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector and has agreed and approved workforce plans with each of the individual local authorities. Since 1 January 2014, my Department has received 876 housing-related staff sanction requests from local authorities, 861 of which have been approved.

Under 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. In this regard, it is a matter for each Chief Executive to ensure that staff are optimally deployed to ensure that appropriate service levels are provided. It is within the remit of the Chief Executive to reassign staff between programme areas to meet emerging demands and it is clear that local authorities have increased staffing numbers in their Housing Departments to deliver on increased demands.

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, my Department is providing a range of 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 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 the Vacant Homes Office. This provision of central funding will allow for focus to be given to the role of the Office in establishing a co-ordinated approach to 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; and 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 my 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.