Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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585. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if eligibility criteria under the tenant-in-situ scheme introduced in 2025 applies to homes for which an application was received and approved but sale was not completed prior to their introduction. [54772/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Acquisitions carried forward from one year to the next are generally reimbursed in accordance with the terms and conditions of the earlier year's Second Hand Acquisitions Programme. This means acquisitions under negotiation or agreed for purchase or under conveyance at end 2024, and which are closed and submitted for drawdown this year, will be reimbursed per the terms and conditions of the 2024 Second Hand Acquisitions Programme.

This approach is standard vis-à-vis the management of multi-annual commitments and expenditure and allows local authorities to progress acquisitions with certainty and confidence from one year to the next, particularly priority acquisitions being progressed in the closing months of a given year for families in the most precarious housing situations.

Similarly, I have recently provided local authorities with flexibility to enter into commitments for 2026 to a value of up to 30% of their original 2025 acquisitions budget. This allows them to commit, pending an agreed programme budget for 2026, some €95 million extra this year for acquisitions that will complete and draw down in 2026. These commitments will be met and reimbursed in 2026 in accordance with the terms and conditions of this year's Second Hand Acquisitions Programme.

A tenant in situ acquisition is a last resort policy tool available to local authorities to accommodate tenants who may be facing homelessness and for whom other tenancy options cannot be found. There is no application process for either landlords or tenants in respect of tenant in situ acquisitions.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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586. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will consider engaging with management of local authorities to examine the extent of uncompleted housing estates with infrastructural deficits beyond the resources of the local authority and available bonds; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that there are people living in unfinished housing estates with sewerage overflowing and local authorities having the on-going costs of dealing with such matters; and if so, if he will consider setting up a fund similar to the mica re-dress scheme to deal with this serious issue mainly in the west of Ireland. [54776/25]

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The legislative process for the taking in charge of housing estates by local authorities is set out in section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The prescribed process in this regard applies to residential developments consisting of two or more dwellings that have been granted planning permission under section 34 of the Act.

There is no automatic requirement for local authorities to take charge of unfinished housing estates after a certain period of time. Under section 180 (1) of the Act of 2000, the planning authority is obliged to initiate the taking in charge process where requested by either the developer of, or by the majority of owners of the dwellings in, the estate in question. However, this is subject to the development being completed to the satisfaction of the authority and in accordance with the permission and any conditions attached thereto.

Where developments have not been completed to the satisfaction of the planning authority, and where enforcement proceedings in this connection have not been commenced by the planning authority within 4 years of the expiry of the planning permission relating to a development, section 180 (2)(a) of the Act provides that the planning authority shall, where requested by the majority of owners of the houses involved, initiate the taking in charge procedures under section 11 of the Roads Act 1993, as amended (the Roads Act).

Where this particular approach is being progressed, the authority may apply the security or development bond provided as part of the planning application for the purposes of ensuring the satisfactory completion of the development.

Where the calling in of the development bond is not possible or sufficient, section 180(2A) of the Act provides that the initiation of the taking in charge procedures under section 11 of the Roads Act shall not preclude the planning authority concerned from pursuing a developer for any costs incurred by the authority in respect of necessary works undertaken on a development to enable it to be taken in charge by that authority.

In order to conclude the taking in charge process where the development has been deemed to have been satisfactorily completed, a local authority is required to make a declaration under section 11 of the Roads Act following a proposal by the executive. The making of such a declaration, which effectively confirms that the authority is prepared to take over responsibility for the ongoing maintenance of the public works elements of the estate, is a reserved function of the elected members of a local authority.

Therefore, the decision to take any particular estate or estates in charge is ultimately one for the elected members of the local authority who, by way of declaration made under the Roads Act, will make such a decision.

It should be noted that financial decision making and the accountability of local authorities is a matter for the elected members of a local authority who have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which includes the adoption of the annual budget of the local authority.

In this regard, section 103 of the Local Government Act 2001, as amended, provides for the local authority budgetary process. It is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process, having regard to both locally identified needs and the funding resources available to the local authority. This includes the taking in charge of housing estates.

There is no longer a dedicated funding scheme for unfinished housing estates and currently there are no plans to reintroduce a further funding scheme for such purposes.