Written answers

Wednesday, 23 November 2022

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Housing Provision

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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83. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social houses built in circumstances in which the State is leasing the house from a private developer in each of the past five years to date; the number of social houses funded through housing agencies that are leased from private development companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58232/22]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme supports the delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the leasing of houses and apartments.

Long term lease arrangements can be entered into by either local authorities or approved housing bodies for periods of between 10 and 25 years.

Local authorities lease dwellings taking account of local need, the suitability of dwellings, sustainable communities’ considerations and value for money. These properties are allocated to households on the social housing waiting list. As such, the type and size of dwelling leased, the new or existing dwelling status, the entities from whom the houses are leased and the allocation of those dwellings, is a matter for the relevant local authority having regard to its most recent housing needs assessment.

Full details of the new or existing dwelling status, as well as details of the owner involved in each social housing leasing project, are not held by my Department.

Data on social housing leasing delivery, funded by my Department, in respect of all local authorities to end Q2 2022 is published on my Department’s website at the following link:

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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84. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of houses that have been procured or built by the State for persons with disabilities by county in each of the past five years. [58233/22]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5bn in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5bn funding through the Housing Finance Agency.

In January 2022, I launched the second joint National Housing Strategy for Disabled People (NHSDP) 2022-2027. This strategy operates within the framework of Housing for All which is committed to ensuring that affordable, quality housing with an appropriate mix of housing design types provided within social housing, including universally designed units, is available to everyone in Irish society, including those with disabilities and older people.

My Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity. Data to the end of Quarter 2 2022 is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website, at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/. While the data does not include specific details on the numbers of units delivered or acquired on behalf of people with disabilities, this data may be available from the individual local authorities.

The Housing Agency also publishes data in relation to the number of social housing allocations to disabled people. Data from 2016- 2020 is available in the NHSDP at the following website gov.ie - National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022–2027 (www.gov.ie)

The Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS), provides that funding of up to 100% of project costs may be advanced by local authorities to Approved Housing Bodies to provide accommodation for priority categories on the housing waiting list including elderly, persons/families who are homeless and people with a disability. Expenditure under this programme from 2017-2021 supported the delivery of 489 units of accommodation for persons with a disability and persons moving out of a congregated setting environment. Details are set out in the table below.

Year Construction Acquisitions Totals No of units delivered Number of units of accommodation delivered for people with a disability to include persons moving out of a congregated setting environment.
2017 70 357 427 85
2018 183 302 485 111
2019 142 428 570 80
2020 156 248 404 102
2021 141 211 352* 111

*In addition to 352 units of accommodation 150 bed spaces were provided for single homeless individuals.

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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85. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding that his Department has allocated to each local authority for the purpose of maintenance and repairs of council houses in each of the past five years. [58235/22]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh 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.

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their own stock, my Department does provide annual funding support to local authorities for management and maintenance under a number of funding programmes.

Under the Voids Programme, my Department has supported local authorities in refurbishing vacant social homes and returning them to productive use. This funding programme was introduced in 2014 and has to the end of 2021 returned 18,527 properties to use with Exchequer funding of €261m from my Department.

Statistics in relation to this scheme are available at the following link:

Under the Energy Efficiency Programme, my Department funds the carrying out of retrofitting works to local authority dwellings. From 2013-2020 the Programme was implemented in 2 Phases: Phase 1 Attic Insulation/Cavity Wall Insulation and Phase 2 focuses on the fabric upgrades to dwellings. Over the period 2013 to 2020 over 73,500 units of social housing stock have been retrofitted with a total exchequer spend of €161 million under the scheme (most of which were completed under Phase 1).

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.

Statistics in relation to this scheme are available at the following link:

My Department also introduced a pilot Midlands Energy Retrofit Programme in 2020-2022, the details of which are available on the following link:

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. From 2017-2021 my Department has provided exchequer funding of over €83m to support this programme, the details of which can be found on the following link:

My Department will continue to support local authorities for stock improvement works and details in relation to 2022 outturn will be available on the above links early in 2023. However it is also important that local authorities increasingly seek to move to a planned management and maintenance approach of their housing stock. In this regard, €5 million in funding has been ring-fenced for Planned Maintenance under this years Planned Maintenance/Voids Programme to support the implementation of an ICT asset management system for the local authority sector and to provide a funding contribution for the commencement of stock condition surveys.

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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86. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of houses that have been built in Ireland to date in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58236/22]

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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88. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social houses built in Ireland by county to date in 2022, in tabular form. [58238/22]

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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89. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social houses built, acquired and leased nationally by county in 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form. [58239/22]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 86, 88 and 89 together.

My Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity in all local authorities, including information on social housing build, acquisition and lease units broken down by local authority. This data is available until the end of Quarter 2 2022 and is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website, at the following link: .

My Department also publishes the Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR). The CSR provides details of social housing developments that have been completed, are under construction or are progressing through the various stages of the design and tender processes. The most recent publication was for Quarter 2 2022 and is available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/5a259-social-housing-construction-projects-status-report-q2-2022/

A version of the CSR file can also be downloaded for analysis at the link below: data.gov.ie/dataset/social-housing-construction-status-report-q2-2022?package_type=dataset

The Quarter 3 statistics are being collated and will be published in due course, in conjunction with the Quarter 3 Construction Status Report.

Data in relation to new dwelling completions is published by the Central Statistics Office on a quarterly basis and can be accessed via the following link: www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-ndc/newdwellingcompletionsq32022/

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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87. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of properties purchased by cuckoo and vulture funds that have housed families exiting emergency accommodation by county in tabular form. [58237/22]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not collate data of the type referred to in the Question.

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