Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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A National Steering Group has been established to ensure that the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office is properly positioned and supported to provide an optimal shared service to the local authorities. This National Steering Group met for the first time on 11 January and is due to meet again on 11 April.

While my Department is a member of the Steering Group, the Group operates under the auspices of the County and City Management Association who can be contacted at: ccma@lgma.ie.

Each Local Authority Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which they are responsible. This applies to both the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office within Dublin City Council, and all local building control authorities.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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245. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government how his Department supports local authorities to complete maintenance works on council-owned homes in a timely fashion. [7335/24]

Darragh 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. Local authority officials and elected members have a very important role to play in this regard by making adequate budgetary provision for housing repairs and cyclical maintenance utilising the significant housing rental income available to them as part of the annual budgetary process.

Notwithstanding the legal obligations on local authorities to manage and maintain their housing stock, my Department does provide annual funding to local authorities to support their work in this area across various programmes.

Under the Planned Maintenance/Voids, funding is available to support local authorities in refurbishing vacant social homes and returning them to productive use. Furthermore funding from my Department under this programme is also available for stock condition surveys and the introduction of an ICT asset management system to support the planned maintenance approach. Budget 2024 has provided €31 million to the programme this year.

Under the Energy Efficiency, my Department funds the carrying out of retrofitting works to local authority dwellings. Works eligible under the programme include attic insulation, wall insulation, the replacement of windows and doors and an efficient renewable heat pump. The measures aim to achieve a BER of B2 or Cost Optimal post works with €90 million available to the programme this year.

Under the Disabled Persons Grant Scheme the 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. Budget 2024 has provided €25 million to the programme this year.

Under the Regeneration Scheme, the Department funds programmes of estate regeneration in a number of targeted areas around the country. This programme focuses on the remediation and upgrade of existing local authority homes within defined areas of disadvantage and can also provide for some new homes as part of the overall regeneration plan for the area. €50 million is available to this programme in 2024.

Given the very significant investment into the Programmes over recent year’s local authorities are now in a strong position to continue the transition to a strategic and informed planned maintenance approach to stock management and maintenance.

To that end, my Department and local authorities are continuing to progress from a largely response and voids based approach to housing stock management and maintenance, to a planned maintenance approach as referenced in Housing for All, policy objective 20.6. This will require the completion of stock condition surveys by all local authorities and the subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes in response.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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246. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of improvement letters, improvement notices and prohibition notices issued by Galway City Council and Galway County Council, respectively in 2023; and if he will provide additional resources to local authorities to ensure properties in private rental market meet minimum standards. [7336/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 and specify requirements in relation to a range of matters, such as structural repair, sanitary facilities, heating, ventilation, natural light, fire safety and the safety of gas, oil and electrical supplies. These Regulations apply to all properties let or available for let. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with the standards set down in the Regulations. Responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations in the private rental sector rests with the relevant local authority.

If a property has been found to be non-compliant with the Regulations, it is a matter for the local authority to determine what action is necessary and appropriate. Under sections 18A and 18B of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992, a housing authority may serve an Improvement Notice or Prohibition Notice, respectively, where a property is found to be non-compliant.

The Government is committed to ensuring that a stock of high quality accommodation is available for those who live in the private rented sector. Housing for All sets a target of 25% for the inspection of all private residential tenancies from 2021. A total of €9 million in Exchequer funding is being made available by my Department to local authorities this year to help them meet their private rental inspection targets.

Local authorities conducted over 49,000 inspections of private rented dwellings in 2022, up from circa 25,000 in 2020 and 20,000 in 2021, when pandemic restrictions had impacted on inspections. Provisional data indicates that all-time high of over 63,000 inspections were conducted last year.

Annual data in respect of the level of inspections carried out by each local authority is available on my Department's website at www.gov.ie/en/publication/da3fe-private-housing-market-statistics/. Full-year data in respect of 2023 is currently being collated and will be uploaded in due course.

The preliminary data in respect of the number of improvement letters issued and improvement and prohibition notices served by Galway City Council and Galway County Council in 2023 are set out in the table below: