Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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526. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the progress made by the local authority stock management policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7649/25]

James Browne (Wexford, 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.

Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 2019. Local authority members and officials have a very important role to play in this regard by making adequate budgetary provision for housing repairs and cyclical maintenance, utilising the significant housing rental income available to them as part of the annual budgetary process.

Notwithstanding this, my Department provides annual funding support to local authorities under the Planned Maintenance/Voids Programme. This funding was introduced originally to tackle long term vacant units and is now increasingly targeted to support authorities to ensure minimum turnaround and re-let times for vacant stock while also allowing for the continuation of the Planned Maintenance approach. From 2014 to 2024, expenditure of almost €362 million was recouped to local authorities under the programme.

€31 million in funding has been approved to support the Planned Maintenance/Voids Programme this year. Local Authorities have received their individual allocations and works are progressing in this regard.

Furthermore, work is ongoing with the local authority sector, through the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) to continue the planned maintenance approach to the maintenance of local authority housing stock. The ICT infrastructure to support this approach has been procured and rolled out to the local authority sector. This approach will see circa 150,000 local authority owned social housing properties surveyed over a four to five year period to determine their condition so as to inform future work programmes and ensure the available funding is spent in a strategic and focussed way.