Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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38. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the allocation for 2026 tenant in situ scheme will be released to local authorities; and the amount which it will be. [53200/25]

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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39. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government for an update on the tenant-in-situ scheme; to outline the differences in the scheme by local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53921/25]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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120. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is satisfied with the level of funding provided for the tenant-in-situ scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53815/25]

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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125. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on the success of the tenant-in-situ scheme to date; if he proposes to expand it and allocate additional funding to local authorities under this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52742/25]

Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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129. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way in which he is prioritising and targeting the recently announced additional €50 million for housing acquisitions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53746/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 38, 39, 120, 125 and 129 together.

My Department's social housing Second Hand Acquisitions Programme is an important part of Government's policy response to support households in precarious housing situations. Generally, it operates on a uniform basis across all local authorities, funding acquisitions that support tenancy sustainment (tenant in situ), exits from homeless services, persons with disabilities and older persons requiring urgent housing responses etc.

Some €375 million has been secured for the programme this year, including an additional €50 million specifically targeting families in long-term emergency homeless accommodation.

From July 2020 to end December 2024, the programme has secured homes for some 7,000 households, helping these households exit homelessness, preventing them from entering homelessness, or providing them with urgent housing responses to meet urgent specialist needs. Moreover, with more than adequate funding available to meet all potential acquisitions flagged by local authorities in 2025, I expect at least 800 more households to be supported under the programme this year.

The programme is sufficiently flexible to accommodate additional measures to address urgent issues as they emerge. This includes, for example, tenant in situ which was introduced in 2023 as a policy tool to help prevent households becoming homeless. In this regard, the broader acquisitions programme has been an undoubted success, and I am committed to continuing it as a critical housing policy response in the coming years.

Reflecting the programmes flexibility, and ensuring we optimise its impact for vulnerable households, my Department has responded quickly throughout the year to financing and other challenges as they have emerged.

In this regard, local authorities have recently been authorised to enter into commitments in 2025 that are likely to only close and fall due for payment and drawn down from my Department in 2026. Accordingly, local authorities can now enter into commitments for 2026 to a value of up to 30% of their original 2025 acquisitions budget. This allows them commit, pending completion of the Estimates process and an agreed programme budget for 2026, some €95 million extra this year for acquisitions that will complete and draw down in 2026. This effectively provides for a multi-annual approach to programme delivery, facilitating local authorities to plan and progress acquisitions from one year to the next with a higher level of certainty vis-à-vis future funding availability.

Additionally, those local authorities that flagged capacity to progress, complete and draw down from my Department additional acquisitions this year (i.e. beyond what could be facilitated within their original allocation) have been authorised to do so. This provides additional scope for those authorities to address urgent responses (e.g. for tenant in situ, exits from homelessness, and other priority cohorts) where acquisitions can be completed and fully drawn down from my Department in 2025.

Finally, a further €50 million has been provided for acquisitions supporting households, particularly larger families with children, to exit long-term emergency homeless accommodation. This funding has been allocated to the eight city and city and county councils, which have the highest number of households that have been emergency accommodation for longer than 24 months in the Dublin region and 12 months or more in the remaining four authorities. Any uncommitted or unspent monies from these allocations will be carried forward into 2026.

Funding for the 2026 Second-Hand Acquisitions Programme will be agreed shortly following completion of 2026 Estimates process. Respective allocations will have regard, not only to relative demand across local authorities, but to progress committing and drawing down the additional allocations provided to support exits from homelessness, with such funding reallocated to other authorities where necessary to better support households to exit long-term homelessness into housing.