Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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112. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of funding allocated and drawn down by Kildare County Council for re-let works on council properties for each of the years from 2018 to 2021 and date in 2022, in tabular form. [23639/22]

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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113. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the funding deficit for 2022 in relation to local authority property re-let works in County Kildare; if his Department is planning to provide increased funding to Kildare County Council to deal with this shortfall; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23640/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 112 and 113 together.

The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966.

Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 2019. Local authority officials and elected members have a very important role to play in this regard by making adequate budgetary provision for housing repairs and cyclical maintenance utilising the significant housing rental income available to them as part of the annual budgetary process.

Notwithstanding the legal obligations on local authorities to manage and maintain their housing stock, my Department does provide annual funding to local authorities to support their work in this area through the Voids Programme. 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. The Voids Programme is grant funded at 100% of costs where local authorities take a pragmatic approach and complete only works necessary to comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. This will also ensure that the property is re-let as quickly as possible.

From 2014 to 2021, expenditure of some €261 million was recouped to local authorities under the Voids Programme which funded the return to productive use of 18,527 properties nationwide.

An annualised breakdown of the funding provided and the number of properties remediated under the Voids programme for the years 2014-2021 is available on my Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/0906a-other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics/#voids-programme

My Department will continue to support local authorities in their work in this area. Funding allocations under the 2022 Programme will be announced shortly.