Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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1110.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will launch and oversee an audit of mould in public housing and in accommodation leased by the State or paid for through rent allowance or HAP, and so on, given the widespread issues of toxic mould in local authority and associated housing across the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32467/24]

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1163.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there are plans to conduct a local authorities-based review of estate management issues and solutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33188/24]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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1193.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of local authority homes, broken down by local authority, that have chronic damp problems; his plans to address this; the estimated cost of doing so; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33428/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1110, 1163 and 1193 together.

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

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities, my Department does provide funding under a number of stock improvement programmes and given the very significant investment 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.

Furthermore, the minimum 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, natural light, fire safety, ventilation and the safety of gas, oil and electrical supplies. Responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations in the private rental sector rests with the relevant local authority. These Regulations apply to all properties let or available for let including local authority owned properties. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with the standards set down in the Regulations.

Regulation 8(1) requires that every room used, or intended for use, by the tenant of the house as a habitable room shall have adequate ventilation.

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 for the inspection of 25% of all registered private residential tenancies. 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 and an all-time high of over 63,500 in 2023. Annual data in respect of inspections is available on my Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/da3fe-private-housing-market-statistics/#private-rented-inspections

Mound and dampness may occur in dwellings, rented or otherwise, and my Department has produced a video and leaflet with the aim of educating the general public on the importance of proper ventilation in the home. They are available here:

• www.gov.ie/homeventilation
• www.gov.ie/aeráiltí