Written answers

Monday, 8 September 2025

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Local Authorities

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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1153. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide details of funding to support the turnaround and re-let of vacant local authority homes under the Voids Programme to Offaly County Council for 2024 and 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45207/25]

Photo of James BrowneJames 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.

The 2025 Programme is providing funding of €31 million to local authorities to support the refurbishment and re-letting of a minimum of 1,900 homes, and continue the transition from a reactive, voids approach to a Planned Maintenance approach. The table below details the allocation to Offaly under the 2025 Planned Maintenance/Voids programme.

Local Authority Number of units allocated in 2025 Voids Funding Allocation Planned Maintenance Funding Allocation
Offaly 26 €286,000 €140,181
An annualised breakdown by local authority including Offaly of the funding provided and the number of properties remediated under the Voids programme for the years 2014 up to and including 2024 is available on my Department's website at the following link:

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

Local authorities will always have a level of vacancy in their housing stock, which will fluctuate over time, as tenancy surrender and re-letting of stock is a continuous process. Therefore, ongoing data in relation to vacant local authority owned homes is not routinely collated by my Department.

However, statistics in relation to social housing stock, at a point in time, are published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in their Annual Reports on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities. These reports provide a range of information in relation to social housing stock, including levels of vacancy and average turnaround times for re-letting local authority owned properties. The most recent report for 2023 is available on the NOAC website at the following link:

www.noac.ie/18-september-2024-local-authority-performance-indicator-report-2023/

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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1154. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if all 31 local authorities are now live on the ICT asset management system; and his views on the broad objectives of the asset management system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45208/25]

Photo of James BrowneJames 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.

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their housing stock my Department is financially supporting local authorities in undertaking stock condition surveys supported by an ICT Asset Management system. To that end, my Department provides a contribution of €150 per survey and it is a matter for each local authority how they utilise this funding. All 31 local authorities are now live on the ICT Asset Management system.

There are c.150,000 local authority homes and the ambition is to have stock condition surveys carried out on all local authority homes and to complete this work over 4 to 5 years, with 2025 considered as year zero. These surveys will inform future work programmes and ensure they are strategic and focused with a cyclical programme of inspection, repair and replacement. Currently surveys are progressing with over 5,896 completed up to the end of August.

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