Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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299. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there has been any purchases of tenant in situ properties where there were issues of pyrite since the scheme commenced. [24105/24]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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300. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has been contacted by Fingal County Council to request delegate sanction to purchase properties for applications that have been refused under the tenant in situ scheme (details supplied). [24106/24]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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301. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has used delegate sanction to allow the council to purchase properties that had some repairs. [24107/24]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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302. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of tenant in situ applications that were purchased, refused and withdrawn since the commencement of this scheme; and if, in the interest of transparency, he will compile this, as the local authorities are not providing this detailed information. [24108/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 299 to 302, inclusive, together.

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 leasing delivery streams.

For 2023, the Government agreed that there would be increased provision for social housing acquisitions and my Department provided funding for local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social homes. The additional acquisitions have primarily focused on properties where a tenant is in receipt of social housing supports and has received a Notice of Termination due to the landlord’s intention to sell the property. My Department issued a circular in March 2023, setting out details of these arrangements and each local authority was provided with a provisional allocation for social housing acquisitions in 2023.

For 2024, Government has again agreed to an increased provision to acquire 1,500 social homes with the primary focus on properties where a tenant is in receipt of social housing supports and has received a Notice of Termination due to the landlord’s intention to sell the property.

Local authorities have delegated sanction in relation to these acquisitions, subject to those acquisitions being within Acquisition Cost Guidelines (ACGs) issued by the Department. Local authorities regularly acquire properties that require repairs but given the delegated sanction my Department would not keep records in relation to such repairs. Local authorities are however required to ensure that the cost of acquiring each property and the required refurbishment costs fall within the ACGs. An independent valuation must also be obtained for each acquisition, in line with established practice for local authorities for social housing acquisitions. The current Acquisition Cost Guidelines were updated and issued to local authorities in May 2024. These guidelines are reviewed and updated as appropriate by my Department usually on a periodic basis.

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 does not hold data, therefore, on the number of social housing acquisitions applications that have been withdrawn or rejected, nor on the reasons for such withdrawals or rejections. Further information may be available from individual local authorities.

Local authorities take appropriate steps to ensure that their first response will be to support households to try to prevent homelessness in cases where tenants have been served with a notice of termination by their landlord. It is important to acknowledge that the Tenant in Situ scheme has been a key measure in preventing homelessness and as such has mitigated such impacts for many households in 2023.

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 4 2023 on the statistics page of my Department’s website at the following link: .