Written answers
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government
Vacant Properties
Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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157. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has invited Wexford County Council to make an application for the vacant properties voids programme; if such an application has been submitted; the amount of funding he plans to allocate to the authority; the time frame for release of the funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19434/20]
Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Since 2014, Exchequer funding has also been provided through my Department's Voids Programme to support local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-letting. This funding was initially introduced to tackle long term vacant units and is now increasingly targeted at ensuring minimal turnaround and re-let times for local authority vacant stock.
In relation to the Voids Programme for 2020 and arising from the impact of COVID-19, there was an initial call for proposals for COVID-19 Voids funding. Vacant units funded by my Department were required for the emergency accommodation of qualified households arising from the need to prevent, limit, minimise or slow the spread of COVID-19. Wexford County Council submitted 6 properties for assessment in relation to this programme and my Department approved funding of €74,910 to return all 6 units.
I announced on the 23rdof July, as part of the Stimulus, additional funding for the Voids programme. A call for proposals encompassing this will issue to all local authorities imminently.
It is also important that local authorities increasingly move toward a preventative maintenance approach to the management of their housing stock and my Department is working with local authorities to this end.
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