Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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316. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of tenant in situ scheme purchases in progress, completed and refused by local authority to date in 2023. [46145/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Under Housing for All, the Government will deliver 47,600 new build social homes and 3,500 social homes through long-term leasing in the period 2022-2026. Our clear focus is to increase the stock of social housing through new build projects delivered by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs).

For 2023, the Government has agreed that there will be increased provision for social housing acquisitions and my Department will fund local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social homes. The additional acquisitions will be focused on properties where a tenant in receipt of social housing supports has received a Notice of Termination due to the landlord’s intention to sell the property. My Department issued a circular letter to all local authorities in March, setting out details of these arrangements and each local authority was provided with a provisional target for social housing acquisitions in 2023 and these allocations are being kept under review.

Local authorities have delegated sanction in relation to these acquisitions, subject to those acquisitions being within Acquisition Cost Guidelines issued by the Department. It is matter for each local authority to decide on appropriate acquisitions having regard to the arrangements for the scheme. Local authorities will work with all social housing supported tenants who receive a Notice of Termination and where it is not possible to purchase the property, the local authority will seek alternative supports, which may include support to obtain an alternative tenancy, including a HAP-supported tenancy or an allocation to local authority stock where possible.

My Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social and affordable housing delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in each local authority, including completed acquisitions. From 2023, this data includes a breakdown of acquisitions completed by each local authority where a Notice of Termination issued to a tenant and is available, for all local authorities, to the end of Quarter 2 2023 on the statistics page of my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/. My Department does not hold the additional details requested.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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340. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the up-to-date position on the review of the housing adaption, housing aid and mobility grants as administered by each local authority; when the review will be announced; if additional funding will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46623/23]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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345. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 283 and 286 of 10 October 2023, when it is anticipated that engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform in respect of recommendations on the Housing Adaptation Grants Review report will be completed. [46658/23]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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348. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when he will publish the review of the housing adaptation grants scheme administered by the local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46702/23]

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 317, 318, 340, 345 and 348 together.

My Department provides Exchequer funding to local authorities to support the suite of Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability which support older and disabled people living in private houses to adapt their home to meet their needs. The grants include the Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability, the Mobility Aids Grant and the Housing Aid for Older People Grant, which are 80% funded by my Department, with a 20% contribution from the resources of the local authority. The detailed administration of these schemes including assessment, approval and prioritisation is the responsibility of local authorities.

Exchequer funding of €66.5 million is available nationally for the grant scheme in 2023. As part of the annual budgetary process the Exchequer funding provision for 2024 has been increased by €8 million to a total of €75 million, continuing the year on year increases since 2014.

My Department works closely with the local authorities to monitor spend and to achieve a full drawdown of available funding. This means that any underspends that arise on the part of any local authority can be redistributed to other authorities which have high levels of grant activity and my Department makes every effort to redistribute such funding throughout the year. My Department encourages all local authorities to ensure all applications on hand are processed to the degree possible for final payment to ensure optimal spend on their annual allocation.

The details supplied relate to point in time information held by local authorities. This information does not account for the ongoing continuous processing of applications and therefore does not provide a comprehensive and up to date account of the existing numbers of applications awaiting assessment in local authorities.

My Department developed a new recoupment claim form which was implemented by local authorities on a phased basis throughout 2022. The new form captures data on the date a valid application is received, approved and paid by a local authority. This will allow the Department to calculate the average length of time that it will take a local authority to approve valid applications and issue grant payments over the 12-month period of 2023 taking account that local authorities submit recoupment claims in batches at various stages throughout the year. This approach will ensure that all local authorities are correctly represented in the resulting data, which will be available for publication in early 2024.

Housing for All commits to reviewing the grants scheme and a report on the review has been prepared by my Department. The review was informed by engagement with external stakeholders, including the Department of Health, the HSE, the Disability Federation of Ireland and the Irish Wheelchair Association. Written submissions were also invited and considered as part of this process. Among the areas the review considered are the income thresholds (including the means test provisions) and grant limits, and the application and decision-making processes including the supplementary documentation required.

Following my consideration of the Review report, my Department is engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform on the recommendations in the report, this engagement is ongoing at present and will conclude as soon as possible. I will publish the report once this engagement has concluded.