Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1018.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social housing inspections that were carried out by all local authorities in each month of 2024 to date, in tabular form; the number of inspections in which further enforcement action was taken in all local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30933/24]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1019.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the quantity of vacant social housing stock in each local authority area and as a proportion of overall social housing stock, in tabular form; and if he will report on his engagement with local authority executives to ensure that these voids are converted into use without delay. [30935/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1018 and 1019 together.

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. Therefore, ongoing data in relation to vacant local authority owned homes are not routinely collated by my Department.

However, statistics in relation to social housing stock, at a point in time, 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 levels of vacancy and average turnaround times for reletting local authority owned properties. The most recent report, relating to 2022, is available on the NOAC website at the following link:

Given the very significant investment into the local authority stock improvement programmes over recent years local authorities are now in a strong position to commence and in some cases continue the transition to a strategic and informed planned maintenance approach to stock management and maintenance informed by the completion of stock condition surveys.

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. The move to a planned management and maintenance model for local authority stock is supported by the LGMA's work on developing an asset based ICT system to capture stock condition data. The ambition is to have stock condition surveys carried out on all local authority homes and to complete this work over 4 to 5 years . The ICT asset management system is deployed on pilot in two local authorities with wider rollout across the sector scheduled for 2024.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1020.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has introduced a ceiling on the number of houses each local authority can purchase under the tenant-in-situ scheme; and if so, his views on the impact this will have on ensuring housing for all. [30961/24]

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 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.

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 in receipt of social housing supports has received a Notice of Termination due to the landlord’s intention to sell the property.

Each local authority has been provided with a provisional allocation for social housing acquisitions in 2024. An increased headroom of 50%, in addition to this initial allocation, has been applied to enable local authorities to acquire homes within these parameters under delegated sanction. Acquisitions above this headroom amount are subject to a sanction request.

Local authorities have delegated sanction in relation to acquisitions within their allocation + 50%, 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.

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 1 2024 on the statistics page of my Department’s website at the following link: .