Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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100. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide in tabular form the amount of funding applied for and allocated to Kerry County Council to refurbish voids in the past five years; the number of voids reported for each year; the number of voids returned to stock each year; the amount of void funding which went unspent each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15638/23]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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101. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide in tabular form the number of houses vacant more than two, three, four and five years in each local authority area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15643/23]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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102. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide details of the average time it takes to refurbish voids in each local authority area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15646/23]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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104. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if Kerry County Council have listed a property (details supplied) as a void; if they have applied for funding to refurbish the property; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15692/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 100, 101, 102 and 104 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.

Since 2014, Exchequer funding has also been provided through my Department's Voids Programme to support local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-letting. 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. This programme is in addition to the funding provided through the local authorities own resources.

An annualised breakdown by local authority, including Kerry County Council, of the funding provided and the number of properties remediated under the Voids programme for the years 2014 up to and including 2022 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

Each individual local authority in their administration of the scheme identify and oversee works required on those vacant units submitted to the Department for funding under the Voids Programme. Details of properties which may be included in the 2023 programme may be available from Kerry County Council and it is understood the property concerned will be included as part of the 2023 programme.

It is important to note, local authorities will always have a level of vacancy in their housing stock. This will fluctuate over time as tenancy surrender and re-letting of stock is an ongoing process. Data in relation to levels of vacancy, average turnaround times and reasons associated with this are not routinely collated by my Department. However, statistics in relation to the social housing stock are published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in their Annual Reports on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities. These reports provide a range of information in relation to social housing stock, including vacancy and the average time taken to re-tenant a dwelling. The most recent report, relating to 2021 as published in November 2022, is available on the NOAC website at the following link:

noac.ie/noac_publications/report-50-noac-performance-indicator-report-2021/

My Department will continue to support local authorities in their work in this area. Funding allocations under the 2023 Programme will be announced shortly. Notwithstanding the voids funding being provided by my Department, local authorities have a responsibility to provide adequate housing maintenance budgets for 2023 and this parallel work by local authorities is essential for the development of the planned maintenance approach, which is an objective of Housing for All.