Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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240. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the annual budget allocated by his Department to each local authority in 2020, 2021 and 2022, in tabular form. [26546/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The funding system that applies to local authorities in Ireland is a complex one, as authorities derive their income from a variety of sources including commercial rates, charges for goods and services and funding from Central Government including my Department, but also other from government Departments and state agencies.

My Department has a significant business agenda, covering a broad range of functions, including local authority housing, voluntary housing, homeless services, estate regeneration, energy efficiency retrofitting, housing grants, rural water schemes and fire services. In order to achieve its business objectives, my Department allocates significant resources to an extensive range of organisations, including local authorities, dedicated agencies, and other bodies. Some allocations, depending on the programmes concerned, are made on a national or other non-county basis in the form of grant funding.

Funding is provided primarily on the basis of vouched expenditure, as opposed to specific up front annual allocations. Across all schemes and funding sources, my Department provided €3.99bn, €4.07bn and €0.95bn to local authorities in the period from 2020 to the end of April 2022. The breakdown of total funding provided by my Department is in the associated table.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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241. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding that has been allocated for the repair and refurbishment of local authority housing in 2020, 2021 and 2022, in tabular form. [26547/22]

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, 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 across a number of programmes.

Under the Disabled Persons Grant Scheme, my Department funds local authorities in carrying out necessary adaptation works to local authority properties to cater for the needs of elderly and disabled tenants and families living in overcrowded conditions in local authority properties. An annualised breakdown of the funding provided for the years 2011-2021 is available on my Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/061cd-disabled-persons-grant-and-improved-works-in-lieu-schemes-allocation-and-drawdown/?referrer=http://www.gov.ie/en/publication/c472d-disabled-persons-grant-and-improved-works-in-lieu-schemes-allocation-and-drawdown-2011-2020/.

Under the Voids programme, funding introduced in 2014 was initially available 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.

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.

Under the Energy Efficiency Programme, Exchequer funding has been provided since 2013 to support local authorities with the retrofit of local authority owned homes requiring insulation and energy upgrade works. Since the programme commenced in 2013 over 75,000 homes have been retrofitted with a total exchequer spend of €184 million under the scheme.

In response to the Programme for Government commitment, my Department launched a newly revised ten year Energy Efficiency Programme in 2021 for local authority owned housing. This new programme set a BER performance requirement of “B2” or cost optimal level. The upscaling of the works included in the programme sees a substantial overall increase in funding being made available for insulation, windows and doors and heating upgrades, specifically the installation of a Heat Pump and associated works. The installation of gas/oil boilers are no longer supported under the energy efficiency programme funded by my Department.

An annualised breakdown of the funding provided and the number of properties upgraded under the Energy Efficiency Retrofit programme for the years 2013-2021 is available on my Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/668c1-energy-efficiency-retrofitting-programme-expenditure-output/.

Under the Regeneration Scheme, my Department supports multi-annual programmes of large-scale regeneration projects in Limerick, Cork and Dublin and smaller projects in Tralee, Sligo and Dundalk. These projects seek to address the causes of disadvantage in these communities through a holistic programme of physical, social and economic regeneration. Projects funded under this subhead include the provision of social housing, other capital projects, social interventions and thermal upgrade programmes. In 2020 and 2021 fundingin excess of €74 million was recouped to local authorities under the Regeneration subhead with a further €50 million being made available in 2022. In order to provide as much flexibility as possible to local authorities in terms of delivery, I have not allocated specific funding within the subhead to the individual elements of regeneration, that is, the delivery of physical, social or economic projects. This allows my Department to deploy this funding where it is most needed at any particular time to maximise the implementation of the regeneration programme.

Works under the 2022 programmes are underway but it will be later this year before significant recoupment claims are lodged with my Department. Full details in relation to output under the various programmes in 2022 will be available early in 2023.