Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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296. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the last national conditions survey of local authority social housing stock took place; the findings of the survey; the action taken since to address the findings of the survey; and when the next survey is due. [5684/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, responsive repairs and implementing planned maintenance programmes, is a matter for each individual local authority, in line with Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966.

My Department requested local authorities to prepare an audit of their social housing stock in February 2011. This primarily involved a desktop exercise based on the information available in local authorities. Though the desktop survey work was limited it did indicate that substantial investment in the local authority housing stock was required Such investment is being made on an annual basis by my Department under the Energy Efficiency, Voids, Disabled Persons Grants, Regeneration and Remedial Works Schemes.

My Department is determined to ensure that future improvement works are driven by strategic and targeted work programmes informed by stock condition surveys and therefore have been working with the local authority sector, through the City and County Management Association, to drive a planned maintenance approach to the maintenance of local authority housing stock. This will see circa 140,000 local authority social housing properties surveyed over a 4/5 year period, commencing in late 2021. These stock condition surveys will inform future work programmes, funding requirements and allocations.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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297. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to facilitate greater tenant participation in community development, empowerment and estate management within local authority housing estates. [5686/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Local authorities are responsible under the Housing Acts for the management and maintenance of their housing stock and the management of their estates, which includes taking the appropriate measures, and putting in place the structures, to facilitate and enable tenants’ participation in estate management. 

Tenants are encouraged to become actively involved in Residents' Associations and where these representative groups do not exist, local authorities can assist residents in establishing them.  Local authorities can also provide training and support to better enable this participation, including pre-tenancy courses and the provision of tenant handbooks.  Some local authorities have designated Estate Management Teams and Tenant Liaison Officers or equivalent staff who can deal individually with any query that residents have regarding their tenancies.  They support the Residents' Association or representative groups for the area and support the tenant participation process, they can provide grants towards estate maintenance to such groups, and run annual best kept estate competitions. There is interagency collaboration in the area of community policing and community representation on Local Community Safety Fora.  Residents are also involved in the implementation of the antisocial behaviour strategies applicable to their local authority area.