Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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297. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has carried out an assessment of the number of vacant standalone properties in the country; the breakdown of same by county; if he will give consideration to the introduction of a home renovation grant to encourage owners of rundown standalone properties to renovate them and bring them back to use; his views on whether such a scheme would have benefits in terms of housing stock available for purchase and lease and for local economies; his further views on whether current schemes such as repair to lease, housing aid for older people and SEAI grants are restrictive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28345/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The National Vacant Housing Reuse Strategy, which was published by my Department in 2018, strives to provide a targeted, effective and co-ordinated approach to identifying and tackling vacancy across Ireland. All local authorities have prepared a Vacant Homes Action Plan for their administrative area. The Vacant Home Action Plan identifies the scale of vacant homes in a local authority’s jurisdiction and sets ambitious but realistic targets of the number of vacant homes that can ultimately be brought back into use.

As emphasised in the National Vacant Housing Reuse Strategy, securing improved data and analysis on vacancy allows for more robust monitoring of vacancy at a national level and improved outputs at local level. To help record levels of vacancy, the vacanthomes.ie website has been developed by Mayo County Council on behalf of the Local Government sector. This provides a central portal for individuals to anonymously log possible vacant properties and alert local authorities to those properties. As appropriate, Vacant Homes Officers can then follow up with the owners to see whether the house can be re-used quickly. The latest statistics from vacanthomes.ie indicate that 5,210 properties have been recorded on the website since 2017.

The table below provides details of properties recorded on the vacant homes website on as at 24 May.

My Department’s role is to drive and co-ordinate actions on vacancy at Central and Local Government levels and to support local authorities in their actions to tackle vacancy in their local areas. The Buy and Renew Scheme has facilitated local authorities to purchase 670 vacant properties for social housing purposes. The Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS) is targeted at owners of vacant properties who cannot afford or access the funding needed to bring their properties up to the required standard for rental properties. The scheme provides upfront funding to carry out the works and, in return, the property owner agrees to lease the dwelling to the local authority to be used as social housing for a period up to 25 years. The number of dwellings delivered under the RLS from July 2018 to end Q4 2020 is 225 dwellings. In November 2020, the maximum funding limit under the scheme was increased from €40,000 to €60,000. Feedback from local authorities is that this action has resulted in a significant increase in interest in the scheme. A budget of €11m was secured for the RLS in 2021, providing funding for an additional 170 units to be delivered this year.

Additionally, my Department oversees the Housing Aid for Older People scheme, which provides grants of up to €8,000 to assist older people living in poor housing conditions to have necessary repairs or improvements carried out. Grant eligible works include structural repairs or improvements, re-wiring, repairs to or replacement of windows and doors, provision of water supply and sanitary facilities, provision of heating etc. The grant available operates on a sliding scale with the highest percentage grant available to those with the lowest incomes. The scheme is means tested and grant assistance is not available to applicants whose household income, after disregards and deductions, exceeds €60,000 per annum. Officials from my Department will begin a review of the existing grant limit and income thresholds applicable this year.

Further measures to address vacancy and to bring housing stock back into use will be considered in the context of the development of the Government’s new housing strategy, Housing for All, which will be published this summer.

In relation to the Deputy’s query on SEAI grants, this is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications.