Written answers

Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Vacant Properties Data

Photo of John CurranJohn Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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583. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of vacant properties that have been refurbished and have returned to the housing stock in each Dublin local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10438/19]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including the implementation of planned maintenance programmes and carrying out of responsive repairs and pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, is a matter for each individual local authority.

Local authority housing stock becomes vacant and is refurbished and re-let on a continuous basis by the local authorities and my Department does not have information on such re-lets.  My Department does provide some exchequer funding to support local authorities in tackling vacant social housing through the voids programme, particularly homes that would likely remain vacant for a significant period of time because of the scale of the works required.  The programme assists local authorities in actively targeting such vacant properties, to minimise their turnaround and re-let times and return them to use in an energy efficient condition.  

Information on numbers of vacant properties that were brought back to productive use in the Dublin local authorities is available to my Department solely in relation to those that received Departmental funding under the voids programme. These details in respect of 2018 are as follows:

-SH Units Returned in 2018 under the voids programme
Dublin City495
Fingal48
South Dublin61
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown 50
Total654

Photo of John CurranJohn Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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584. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the average target time for refurbishment of vacant properties in each local authority area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10439/19]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Vacant properties can be in varying states of disrepair and my Department encourages each local authority to bring these properties back to productive use as quickly as possible.  Statistics in relation to social housing are compiled by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in its annual reports on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities.  These statistics are set out by local authority and include the average time from date of vacancy to the date when a new tenancy commenced, with the most recent report relating to 2017.This report is available on the NOAC website at the following link:

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Photo of John CurranJohn Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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585. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount each local authority spent on the refurbishment of vacant properties in its areas in 2016, 2017 and 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10440/19]

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

Under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including the implementation of planned maintenance programmes and carrying out of responsive repairs and pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, is a matter for each individual local authority.

Local authority housing stock becomes vacant and is refurbished and re-let on a continuous basis by the local authorities and my Department does not have information on such re-lets or their cost.  My Department does provide some exchequer funding to support local authorities in tackling vacant social housing through the voids programme, particularly homes that would likely remain vacant for a significant period of time because of the scale of the works required.  The programme assists local authorities in actively targeting such vacant properties, to minimise their turnaround and re-let times and return them to use in an energy efficient condition. 

The following table shows the funding provided by my Department under the voids programme for each local authority for the years 2016 to 2018.

Funding 2016Funding 2017Funding 2018
Carlow€69,450€91,750€555,874
Cavan€307,530€303,112€270,779
Clare€1,329,700€966,203€906,400
Cork City€6,812,333€1,485,357€820,190
Cork County€1,270,488€1,130,977€4,351,122
Donegal€986,690€1,866,898€969,585
Dublin City€8,757,848€8,520,549€8,299,452
Fingal€1,725,774€1,329,300€589,150
South Dublin€703,736€718,446€574,589
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown €183,092€283,531€436,845
Galway City€346,650€124,150€0
Galway County€472,552€401,159€763,853
Kerry€917,549€1,101,143€1,132,446
Kildare€485,130€205,960€639,867
Kilkenny€351,278€307,749€212,293
Laois€97,053€33,170€97,688
Leitrim€712,404€0€387,427
Limerick€384,250€215,520€272,177
Longford€506,705€0€67,500
Louth€91,523€83,518€166,794
Mayo€233,089€261,986€204,474
Meath€1,435,700€769,005€836,941
Monaghan€667,944€505,254€496,283
Offaly€846,198€107,792€102,929
Roscommon€808,612€44,324€22,600
Sligo€1,097,909€909,395€1,650,283
Tipperary€1,204,318€1,324,604€771,582
Waterford€1,135,973€574,309€0
Westmeath€436,062€329,113€207,845
Wexford€167,007€428,015€0
Wicklow€245,887€276,778€452,145
€34,790,434€24,699,067€26,259,113

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