Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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221. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of applications received, the number of grants approved and the number of grants completed and paid out under the mobility aids grant, housing adaption grant for people with a disability and housing aid for older people grant in Mayo for the years 2022 and 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54298/23]

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides Exchequer funding to local authorities to administer 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.

Details of the number of grants paid and the amount spent by each local authority, including by Mayo County Council, for 2022 are available on my Department's website at the following link:

www.housing.gov.ie/housing/statistics/social-and-affordble/other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics.

The Council claimed a total of over €2.5 million in Exchequer funding facilitating the payment of 558 grants to date in 2023, the detail of which is set out in the following table:

The detailed administration of these schemes, including assessment, approval and prioritisation, is the responsibility of the relevant local authorities. Details in relation to the number of applications received, approved or completed and paid (but not yet claimed from my Department) by Mayo County Council to date in 2023 are not available in my Department. This information may be available directly from the local authority.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has developed the ‘Cost Rental Tenant In-Situ’ scheme for tenants in private rental homes who are at risk of homelessness because a landlord intends to sell the property, but who are not in receipt of social housing supports. The scheme was established on a temporary administrative basis from 1 April 2023 and is managed by the Housing Agency, pending further policy development over the longer term with the intention of transitioning these tenants and homes to the standard Cost Rental model.

I am informed that the Housing Agency are engaging with more than 130 landlords with a view to the purchase of those homes.

The Quarterly data on this scheme is currently being collated by the Housing Agency and being validated by my Department. It will be published in the near future.

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).

Social Housing is delivered through a range of local authority and Approved Housing Body (AHB) delivery programmes across the build acquisition and lease delivery streams.

For 2023, the Government has agreed that there will be increased provision for social housing acquisitions and my Department is funding local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social homes. The additional acquisitions are 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 in March, setting out details of these arrangements and each local authority was provided with a provisional allocation for social housing acquisitions in 2023.

Local authorities have delegated sanction in relation to these acquisitions, subject to those acquisitions being within Acquisition Cost Guidelines issued by the Department. An independent valuation must also be obtained for each acquisition, in line with established practice for local authorities for social housing acquisitions.

Local authorities will work with all social housing supported tenants who receive a Notice of Termination and offer the available supports, which may include a tenant in situ acquisition or support to obtain an alternative tenancy, including a HAP-supported tenancy or an allocation to local authority stock. It is a matter for individual local authorities to identify suitable acquisitions in line with local circumstances and their social housing allocations policy.

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/.

The Cost Rental Tenant in Situ scheme is administered by the Housing Agency and, as of the end of Q2 2023, 68 cases had been referred to the Housing Agency by 21 local authorities. It is intended that data in relation to the Scheme will be published on a quarterly basis.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Cost Rental Tenant In-Situ (CRTiS) scheme was introduced on 1 April 2023, for tenants in private rental homes who are at risk of homelessness because a landlord has served a valid Notice of Termination due to an intention to sell the property. The Housing Agency may purchase the home and allow the tenant to continue residing in it, where the tenant is not in receipt of social housing supports and has a net household incomes within the limits set for Cost Rental housing (increased on 1 August to €66,000 for Cost Rental homes in Dublin and €59,000 in the rest of Ireland).

The reasons for not progressing some cases include tenants having net household incomes above the limits for Cost Rental, tenants vacating the properties, tenants ceasing engagement with the Agency or formally withdrawing their application. In addition, in some cases it is not possible to reconcile vendor expectations on price with the Housing Agency’s independent professional valuation of the property, or to achieve an overall capital cost within the Acquisition Cost Guidelines issued by my Department in April of this year for each Local Authority area.

Furthermore in some cases, very substantial works would be required to bring the property into compliance with the minimum standards for rental accommodation or to stabilise the physical condition of the property and make it suitable for long-term Cost Rental use.

Tenants at risk of homeless should also continue to engage directly with their Council’s Housing Department who can advise tenants in relation to their immediate and long-term accommodation options.