Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1168. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the recruitment of vacant property officers by local authorities and the dedicated vacant homes unit to be set up to co-ordinate their work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1297/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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In August 2017, I requested all local authorities to designate vacant home officers to co-ordinate local actions to address vacancy in their functional areas. Vacant Homes Officers are intended to act as a central point of contact 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.

Funding has been made available to each local authority (€50,000 per annum for 2018 and 2019) to support the work of their officers in the area of vacancy. The provision of central funding allows for focus to be given to the role of those officers in ensuring a coordinated approach to the implementation of local authority Vacant Homes Action Plans and engagement with my Department’s Vacant Homes Unit.

All 31 local authorities have designated vacant homes officers within their respective functional areas and a list of those officers is available on my Department's website at .

In tandem with requesting local authorities to designate vacant homes officers, a Vacant Homes Unit (VHU) was set up in my own Department in 2017 and this Unit leads on the implementation of actions under the National Vacant Housing Reuse Strategy 2018 to 2021. The VHU supports local authority Vacant Homes Officers through information and guidance and facilitated a Vacant Homes Officer seminar in October 2018. Further information on the work of the VHU is available on my Department's website at .