Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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116. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the additional staff sought by Cork City Council for its housing directorate, by division, that is, vacancy, adaptation, maintenance and so on, in the past 12 months, in tabular form. [14108/23]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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117. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the additional staff sought by Cork County Council for its housing directorate by division, that is, vacancy, adaptation, maintenance, etc. in the past 12 months, in tabular form. [14109/23]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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118. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of additional staff sought by each local authority, by directorate, in tabular form, in the past 12 months. [14110/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 116 to 118, inclusive, together.

Under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he/she is responsible. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of overall local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.

Granular data, in terms of the detailed breakdown of the numbers and grades of the overall number of staff allocated to specific work areas or directorates within local authorities, is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. While local authorities will seek sanction from my Department for certain posts, 1093 staffing sanction requests for new posts were submitted to my Department in the period 1 January to 31 December 2022, such requests are not on a directorate basis. The relevant information would be available from each local authority.

That said and in the context of housing delivery specifically, Housing for All commits to strengthen the capacity of local authorities to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects and recognises that it requires the resourcing of housing services of local authorities. In this context, I approved funding for 250 posts for local authority housing teams to support the delivery of social housing. I believe there have been delays in some areas but recruitment is well underway and that over 180 posts have been filled to date. Funding has been approved for a five-year period from 2022 to 2026 with a potential to extend the funding to 2030, subject to the availability of the capital funding as well as the delivery of targets in each local authority area. In total, 11 additional posts have been approved for social housing delivery in Cork City and 9 additional posts for Cork County.

Furthermore, an initial tranche of 69 affordable housing staff posts were approved in October 2022 and  communicated to each of the respective local authorities with an affordability constraint. This is a key requirement to underpin affordable housing delivery and ensuring the required structures are in place to enable affordable housing delivery as a matter of priority. My Department and the Housing Delivery Coordination Office in the Local Government Management Agency will be monitoring this programme further to a review of any additional supports being examined in 2023. In total, 4 additional posts for affordable housing delivery have been approved for Cork City and 5 additional posts for Cork County.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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120. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his view on matters raised in correspondence (details supplied); if he will formally communicate to local authorities the requirement for all councils to fully implement the terms of the framework agreement reached with trades unions in relation to the protection of pay, terms and condition of all workers referred to under the terms of the agreement referred to in the correspondence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14140/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Framework for future delivery of Water Services (June 2022) was identified following a comprehensive process of engagement with unions under the aegis of the Workplace Relations Commission and enables the integration of public water services into Uisce Éireann's organisational structure, as envisaged in the Government’s Policy Paper on Water Sector Transformation (February, 2021).

The Framework will impact on around 3,200 staff currently serving in the local government service. Any transfers of staff to become permanent employees of Uisce Éireann will be on an entirely voluntary basis.

In line with the Framework, water services staff who choose not to transfer to Uisce Éireann will remain in the direct employment of their current local authority maintaining their current terms and conditions of employment. They may continue to work in water services, under the direction of Uisce Éireann, until 31 December 2026. Local authorities will no longer have any involvement in the direct provision of water services to the public beyond that date.

Further opportunities for staff who do not seek to transfer to Uisce Éireann will be identified during the transition period, including reassignment, redeployment, upskilling and training programmes.

A Voluntary Redundancy scheme will also be made available under the Framework to eligible local authority water services staff members.

I have every confidence that the Framework document is the right way forward for all the parties to the transformation process. For workers, in particular its sets out the options that will become available generally, and empowers each worker to decide voluntarily on the option which is best suited to their own individual needs.

My role as Minister does not extend to operational staffing and human resource decisions at local authority level which is a matter for the Chief Executive Officer of each local authority and their senior management teams.

For my part, I see the commitments given to existing water services staff seeking to remain as local authority employees as intrinsic to the overall Framework and I wish to see these commitments honoured in full and progressed proactively in every reasonable and appropriate way. The Department and I will continue to work collaboratively with all the parties to the Framework to ensure that it is implemented in a fair and even-handed manner for all concerned.

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

Leasing delivery figures include social homes secured under local authority long term leasing, enhanced leasing, approved housing body long term leasing, short term rent availability agreements, mortgage to rent (MTR) and the repair and leasing scheme (RLS).

Data on social housing leasing delivery can be found in the overview section of my Department's website, linked below. The annual social housing activity reports give a breakdown of the total leasing delivery by local authority for each individual year.

www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/#overview

Delivery data for Q4 2022 is being collated at present and will be published as soon as that process is finalised.