James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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397. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will consider reviewing Government’s acquisition cost guidelines for Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28830/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Given the emphasis on continuing to achieve best value for Exchequer investment and in response to the

continuing fluctuation in house prices, the cost guidelines for acquisitions of social housing units are updated on a regular basis (typically annually) to reflect movement in the market.

My Department has very recently issued letters containing revised Acquisition Cost Guidelines (for use from Q2 2025) to each Director of Service in respect of all Local Authorities including Dublin City Council (DCC).

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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398. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he can outline plans to support the tenant-in-situ scheme via funding and also through the eligibility criteria; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28831/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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For 2025, Government has increased the funding available for second hand social housing acquisitions from the €60m allocated under Housing for All to €325m through the allocation of an additional €265m. The €325 million allocation has been made available to our local authorities for their social housing second-hand acquisitions activity in 2025, and this is part of over €2 billion which is supporting local authorities and approved housing bodies to deliver new social homes in 2025.

This substantial financial investment will support local authorities to acquire second-hand properties for priority categories of need including tenants-in-situ who have been in receipt of supports under HAP or RAS and who had received a Notice of Termination. The other priority categories for second-hand acquisitions are properties that allow persons/families to exit homelessness; one-bedroom properties to deliver on Housing First targets; specific housing required for people with a disability or the elderly and vacant properties under the Buy & Renew scheme.

It will be a matter for the local authorities to decide how they use their funding allocation within the priority categories being supported by the programme. To date they have only drawn down 24% or c.€77m of the €325m funding allocated to them for second hand acquisitions in 2025.

Despite some coverage to the contrary, the eligibility criteria for tenant-in-situ acquisitions in 2025 is largely the same as guidance issued in June, 2024 and not substantially different to what was required in 2023. We have asked local authorities, as we did in previous years, to ensure that they are responding to a valid Notice of Termination where there is a real risk of homelessness and to examine all options for the ongoing accommodation of the household before progressing with an acquisition. In some cases, local authorities might use the thousands of new social allocations that they make each and every year, to provide a new tenancy for the families they are supporting.

We have also asked that local authorities would give priority to families with children, older persons or people with a disability who are at serious risk of homelessness; however prioritising households should not be interpreted as excluding any household and the final decisions in relation to each individual acquisition rests, as it should, with the local authority.

My Department continues to work with local authorities to address any challenges which have emerged in order to ensure that tenant in situ acquisitions remain an option in 2025 where no other solutions exist.