Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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106. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the supports in place for persons who are victims and survivors of domestic abuse with accrued time on the housing list, but cannot accept housing in an area due to the presence of their abuser and on advice from An Garda Síochána, but who do not wish to lose the years accrued; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12893/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The qualification criteria for social housing support are set down in Section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended.

A household may apply for social housing support to one local authority only, which may be the authority for the area in which the household normally resides or with which it has a local connection, or where the authority agrees, at its discretion, to assess the household for support. A household may then specify up to three areas of choice for receipt of support in the areas of all housing authorities in the county and city concerned and, if qualified, will be entered on the housing waiting list of each of those housing authorities.

A household may, not less than 12 months after the date on which it is first entered on a housing authority’s housing list, notify the housing authority of application that it wishes to change one, or more than one, area of choice in the application area and a household may change one, or more than one, such area not less than 12 months after its most recent change of an area of choice. An applicant does not lose any time on the list by changing their area of choice.

Generally, is not possible for a household previously on one social housing waiting list to carry the time spent on that list when applying to another local authority. However, local authorities may provide for exceptional or emergency cases to qualified households, allowing immediate housing outside of normal waiting lists priorities, should circumstances require. They may also reserve a certain proportion of dwellings for, among other things, allocation to particular categories of households, particular forms of tenure, and households transferring from other forms of social housing support.

In June 2022, the Department of Justice published Zero Tolerance, the Third National Strategy on DSGBV 2022-2026 which is a cross-Departmental and multi-agency plan with overall policy coordinated by the Department of Justice . As an action in this strategy, my Department committed to a review of the 2017 Policy and Procedural Guidance for Housing Authorities in relation to assisting victims of domestic violence with emergency and long-term accommodation needs in order to ensure continuing effectiveness and consistency in responses to assist victims of domestic violence. My Department is currently engaging with Cuan, the Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence Agency in relation to this review and proposed recommendations arising from the review.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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107. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will consider the introduction of an increased grant for council homes that have been empty longer than 12 months or are in a significant state of disrepair. [12617/25]

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, is a matter for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. Local Authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure all their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the housing (standards for rented houses) Regulations 2019.

However, my Department provides annual funding support to local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-let under the Voids Programme. Since 2014 to the end of 2024 Exchequer funding of €361.6 million has been recouped to local authorities, which has supported the refurbishment and re-let of 25,672 dwellings.

The emphasis of the programme is on those refurbishment works necessary to comply with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 to ensure quick turnaround and re-letting times. All future works should be deferred and carried out under planned maintenance over the lifecycle of the asset. Under the Voids Programme there is no upper cap that can be spent on an individual dwelling providing the overall average per dwelling of €11,000 is maintained.

Funding is also available under the Energy Efficiency Programme of up €48,850 and can be used in parallel with Voids funding where turnaround times are not affected.

As part of the Programme for Government consideration is being given to the introduction of a new Voids Programme with a view to further improve turnaround times of vacant social housing units. However, given the very significant investment into the voids programme and positive impact this programme has had over recent years, it is expected that local authorities should have dealt with legacy vacancy and by the end of this year be in a strong position to complete the transition to a strategic and informed planned maintenance approach to stock management and maintenance.