Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

423. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government for a report on the cost-rental tenant-in-situ and the tenant-in-situ programmes, broken down by local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36958/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Both the Tenant in-Situ and Cost Rental Tenant in-Situ schemes support households who are at risk of homelessness.

For 2023 and 2024, the Government agreed that there would be increased provision for social housing acquisitions and my Department provided funding for Local Authorities to acquire 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.

It is a matter for individual local authorities to identify suitable acquisitions in line with local circumstances and their social housing allocations policy. 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.

The Cost Rental Tenant In-Situ (CRTiS) scheme was introduced on 1 April 2023 for tenants in private rental homes who are not in receipt of social housing supports but are at risk of homelessness because a landlord has served a valid Notice of Termination due to an intention to sell the property.

The Local Authority conducts the initial assessment for eligibility of the tenant for this scheme and refers potential cases to the Housing Agency, which is responsible for administering and managing the scheme on behalf of my Department, pending further policy development over the longer term, with the intention of transitioning these homes to the standard Cost Rental model over time and to move it to being an Approved Housing Body led scheme. I am informed that the Housing Agency have engaged with more than 190 landlords across all Local Authority areas, with a view to the purchase of those homes.

Comprehensive data on social and affordable housing is published on my Department's website up to Quarter 1 2024, including completed acquisitions: .

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

424. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government for a report on the retrofit programme, broken down by local authority, with details of the numbers completed and the plan to retrofit all homes in State stock; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36959/24]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

425. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will put in place a solar panel support scheme for local authority tenants, administered by councils where the council takes on the upfront costs and tenants pay back over a period of time while their bills reduce; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36964/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 424 and 425 together.

The Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP) aims to retrofit a local authority home to a BER of B2/Cost Optimal Equivalent. It is expected that 36,500 local authority owned homes will be retrofitted under this programme out to 2030.

An annualised breakdown of the total funding provided and the number of properties upgraded under the Energy Efficiency Retrofit programme for the years 2013-2023 is available on my Department's website at the following link:

My Department also introduced a pilot Midlands Energy Retrofit Programme in 2020, the details of which are found below. A further 674 properties were retrofitted to a BER of B2/ Cost Optimal Equivalent and these figures are in addition to the National Retrofit Programme.

Each year the target number of units and funding provided under the EERP are subject to the funding availability as part of the National Development Plan and annual Estimates process. The 2024 EERP budget provides an increase in funding support to €90 million to retrofit 2,500 properties. Local authorities have received their individual allocations and work is underway in that regard.

The programme has been devised in a way to give local authorities a level of flexibility when selecting properties to retrofit, ranging from those requiring minor levels of works to properties needing the maximum level of retrofitting required to bring them to a B2/Cost Optimal Equivalent standard. Works eligible under my Department's revised Energy Efficient Retrofit Programme include attic/cavity wall insulation or external wall insulation where required, windows and doors replacement, heat pump installation and ancillary and associated works. These funded measures achieve B2 or Cost Optimal equivalent (BER) as identified by the 2018 Cost Optimal calculations carried out under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. In certain circumstances, my Department supports the installation of 1 kWp solar PV for small social homes with a floor area less than 55 m², with a maximum HLI of 2.6 on a pilot basis. In such cases local authorities are required to cooperate with SEAI as part of research monitoring the performance of heat pumps in these dwellings. Furthermore, under the Microgeneration Support Scheme led by Department for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Solar PV is available for all domestic premises.

Work in relation to the 2024 programme is ongoing. Full details in relation to the 2024 Energy Efficiency Programme will be published on my Department’s website early in 2025.