Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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175. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of void houses in each local authority area for the years 2020 to 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8251/25]

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.

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their own stock, my Department provides annual funding support to local authorities for management and maintenance under the current Planned Maintenance/Voids Programme.

A breakdown of the funding received by each local authority and the number of properties that were remediated can be accessed on my Department’s website at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/collection/0906a-other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics/#voids-programme.

Full details in relation to delivery under the 2024 Planned Maintenance/Voids Programme will be published across all local authorities presently.

My Department will continue to support local authorities in their work in this area this year and €31 million of funding has been made available. To that end, individual allocations for the Planned Maintenance/Voids Programme have issued to all local authorities with work progressing to remediate and re-let the target number of dwellings.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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176. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will consider the urgent establishment of a taskforce for Clonmel town centre (details supplied) to deal with the extensive levels of vacancy and dereliction facing the town; if he will work with the Minister for Justice and Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to establish such a taskforce to deal with the many issues facing the town; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8281/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Addressing vacancy and making efficient use of existing housing stock is a key priority for Government.

In Pathway 4 of Housing for All on Addressing Vacancy and Efficient Use of Existing Stock, the Government set out a blueprint to ensure that vacant properties can be used to the fullest extent possible. The Vacant Homes Action Plan, published in January 2023, built on Pathway 4 and set out the various actions that were being pursued to return vacant properties back into use as homes.

The Vacant Homes Action Plan Progress Report was launched in April 2024 highlighting the key measures that have been undertaken across all relevant Government departments to support bringing properties back into use as homes and it is available here on the Department's website: .

A key initiative in the Action Plan is the Town Centre First Policy, which was jointly launched by my Department and the Department of Rural and Community Development in February 2022 and provides a co-ordinated, whole-of-government policy framework to proactively address the decline in the health of towns and support measures to regenerate and revitalise them. To drive the delivery of Town Centre First at a town level, dedicated Town Regeneration Officers are now established within local authorities.

In 2023, the Tipperary Town Regeneration Officer and Clonmel Borough District brought together a number of people who represented various interests across the town of Clonmel to form a Town Team.

The Clonmel Town Centre First Plan has been published and it is about making the town centre a better place to live, work and visit and positioning Clonmel for the future as a more attractive, vibrant and resilient town. The three main themes in the plan are to; provide an attractive town centre that would be a good public space; make the town centre active from a tourism and economic point of view, while making use of vacant buildings and promoting it from an arts, culture and sporting point of view; and making the town centre more accessible to support a vibrant town centre. The Plan is available to view here:

My Department is also supporting Tipperary County Council through the €150 million Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF). The Fund has been made available to local authorities to end long-term vacancy and dereliction by acquiring, including through compulsory purchase, vacant and derelict properties for sale or reuse. Tipperary County Council has been approved €6m in URDF funding to help tackle vacancy and dereliction in their URDF eligible areas, which includes Clonmel.

The initial focus of the approved URDF Programmes is on tackling vacant or derelict buildings located within town centre areas that will provide, as part of their ultimate end use, some element of residential use. On this basis, 77 of the properties submitted by Tipperary County Council across all their URDF eligible towns have been prioritised for acquisition and placed on the approved acquisition programme, with 28 of these properties located in Clonmel.