Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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187. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the average turnaround time for a void property to be refurbished in Limerick city; the steps that are being taken to shorten the refurbishment time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37214/24]

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.

My Department also provides annual funding support to local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-let under the Voids Programme. This funding was introduced originally to tackle long-term vacant units and is now increasingly targeted to support authorities to ensure minimal turnaround and re-let times for vacant stock. €31 million in funding support is available to the local authorities this year with the target to remediate 2,300 vacant local authority homes.

Notwithstanding this, 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:

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