Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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574. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of local authorities currently using choice-based letting to make social housing allocations. [2239/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Choice-Based Letting (CBL) is a method that can be used by local authorities to allocate social housing, whereby available social housing stock is let by being openly advertised, allowing qualified applicants to ‘bid’ for or ‘register an interest’ in available homes. Applicants respond to available properties advertised by local authorities, rather than waiting for an authority to offer them a dwelling. This approach offers more choice, transparency and involvement for applicant households in selecting a new home, thereby reducing the likelihood of a refusal, improving re-let times and helping to build sustainable tenancies and stable communities.

To date, 19 local authorities have indicated they are currently operating CBL. These are: Clare, Cork City, Cork County, Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Galway City, Galway County, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Meath, South Dublin, Tipperary, Wexford and Waterford. My Department continues to work with the remaining local authorities to support their development of a Choice Based Letting model.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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575. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social homes purchased from financing institutions by the Housing Agency with their rolling fund in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024; the number of these properties that were then sold onto AHBs and local authorities; and the current status of the fund. [2240/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Housing Agency Acquisitions Fund (HAAF) was established in the year 2017 as a revolving €70 million fund with the objective of acquiring vacant property portfolios from banks and financial institutions that could then be used for social housing.

Information on the number of properties purchased from banks and financial institutions and sold to Approved Housing Bodies and local authorities in the years of interest is as set out in tabular form below.

By the year 2021, it had become clear that the supply of properties from the original sources that the HAAF was established to target had declined substantially and were no longer available in sufficient numbers or in terms of the suitability of properties.

Pursuant to a commitment in Housing for All, a review of the operation of the HAAF was completed in the year 2022. Subsequently, it was decided to re-purpose the Fund to support the Housing First Programme and the Cost Rental Tenant in-Situ (CRTiS) Scheme.

Housing First is a measure to tackle long-term homelessness among people with complex health needs by providing them with stable tenancies as well as health and social supports. To this end, the Housing Agency may purchase suitable properties using the Fund, which, in turn, are sold on to, primarily, Approved Housing Bodies.

CRTiS is a scheme that is available where a household faces the termination of its tenancy due to the landlord’s intention to sell the property. Where there is a risk of homelessness and following an assessment by the relevant local authority, the Housing Agency may then, using the Fund, purchase such a property.