I thank all Members for their contributions. I echo the comments made by the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and reassert this Government's commitment to tackling the challenges in the housing sector. I will highlight the steps being taken by the Government to minimise vacancy and to ensure strategic and informed programmes of planned maintenance work for local authority housing are implemented and support by stock condition data and the appropriate ICT asset management solution. The completion of the roll-out of the ICT solution to all 31 of our local authorities has occurred in the past few weeks and is an important step. Furthermore, since 2014, Exchequer funding has been provided through my Department's voids programme to support local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-letting. This funding was initially introduced to tackle long-term vacant units and is now, in light of urgent housing needs, increasingly targeted at ensuring minimal turnaround and re-let times for local authority vacant stock. Vacant properties need to be refurnished and re-let as quickly as possible, with the emphasis only on those works that are necessary to ensure compliance with the housing regulations of 2019. Works that may be desirable but not necessary to meet those letting standards should not delay the re-let and can instead be carried out later under a planned maintenance programme. Prioritising such work on vacant units ahead of similar works required on homes occupied by tenants is not advised or supported by my Department because it is contrary to the principle of good stock management through regular planned maintenance. I will be looking at the overall picture in respect of funding local authorities for voids management and planned maintenance, coupled with various other local authority stock improvement programmes by my Department. Since 2013 until the end of 2024, under the planned maintenance voids programme, the energy efficiency programme, including the midlands pilot, and the disabled persons grant scheme, local authorities have received just shy of €1 billion in Exchequer funding. That is substantial State support. With specific reference to voids, however, it should be borne in mind that there is no upper cap on the amount that can be spent or recouped on an individual dwelling, provided the total amount averaged across all dwellings-----

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-----submitted by a local authority does not exclude €11,000. In addition, and where turnaround times are not impacted, local authorities can also complete the suite of works applicable to the energy efficiency retrofit programme on a vacant dwelling with additional funding up to a maximum of €48,850. There is evidence to suggest, however, that while re-letting costs are higher, the turnaround times are longer. Pre-letting works being completed to the highest possible standard in order to future-proof these dwellings does not need to be carried out between tenancies. Such an approach causes unnecessary delays in re-let times and is inconsistent with Government policy on the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock. Additional funding was made available in 2020, which provided uncapped funding levels. This was supported again in 2021 with the non-standard voids programme. Further uncapped additional funding was made available to the sector in 2023 to finally tackle any remaining legacy vacant support for the transition to planned maintenance. There should be no long-term voids in this country after the substantial funding that was provided to get them back in place. Deputy Gould gave the example of a house that was waiting for a retrofit for five years because it did not have a stairs. The idea that a Cabinet Minister needs to get involved with a local authority to put in a stairs because it is beyond the wit or ability of a local authority to do it in five years is, quite frankly, farcical.

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It did not have the money to put in stairs.

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It did not have the money to put in stairs. Is the Deputy having a laugh? This is the problem. The local authority should be putting in those stairs.

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The Deputy should think about what he is saying. These voids should not be there. The local authorities have the ability and wherewithal to resolve the issue.

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The Government has in the past given them the money to do so. The funding available from my Department under the planned maintenance voids programme is available to support minimal turnaround times, with all local authorities moving to a position of aligning works with the criteria of the relevant regulations and meeting their legal obligations as a landlord. This will limit the impact of funding shortfalls, which must be absorbed from the local authorities' own resources. Given the significant Exchequer investment into the stock improvement programmes over recent years, particularly for voids, I now envisage that local authorities should be in a strong position to continue the transition to a strategic and informed planned maintenance approach to stock management and maintenance. A Sinn Féin TD earlier gave the example of a house having been left in immaculate condition. What did the local authority do? It went in and gutted it. That is absolute madness.

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The Deputy comes in and blames the Government for allowing that to happen.

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It is madness and should not be happening. Of course, in line with local authorities' best practice and with regard to rental standards, whether a house is old or has a long-standing tenant in situ, it should be inspected and improvement works carried out at regular intervals to prevent excessive maintenance costs and delay when the property becomes vacant. To that end, my Department and colleagues across the local authority sector are working to transition from a largely reactive response and a void-based approach to stock management and maintenance to a planned maintenance approach. This will require the completion of stock condition surveys by all local authorities and the subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes in response. My Department will support these work programmes by ensuring that the funding available under the various stock improvement programmes is aligned with this approach. In consecutive years, my Department has ring-fenced €5 million for planned maintenance under the planned maintenance of voids programme. This has been doubled to €10 million for 2025. I hope to increase it further in future years. This funding has supported the implementation of an ICT asset management system for the local authority sector, which, as I mentioned earlier, is now available, with all 31 local authorities on board. This investment is also available to provide a funding contribution for the completion of stock condition surveys while simultaneously funding planned maintenance works that arise from these surveys. This approach will also ensure that the properties are returned to productive use as quickly as possible while allowing more extensive works to be carried out on a cyclical basis. From an asset management perspective, local authorities are moving to a position whereby properties are inspected and maintained at regular intervals.

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The move to the planned maintenance approach for stock management and maintenance is crucial in this regard to ensure that local authorities can maximise the funding available from relevant stock improvement programmes by only completing the measures applicable with the housing standards for rented housing regulations when a property becomes vacant. Providing cyclical maintenance over the life cycle of a tenancy will ensure houses can be re-let more quickly, deliver far better value for money and limit the exposure of the local authority to excessive costs and significant turnaround times when a property becomes vacant. The motion from Sinn Féin tabled for this evening's debate does not fairly represent the efforts and progress the Government has made and is making. It makes the point that we need to create a dedicated Department of housing with annual multi-euro maintenance funding, starting in budget 2026, but this is already in place and is further supported by the housing delivery co-ordination office. Some €90 million is available for the energy efficiency retrofit programme, which is an increase of almost 40% since the programme was implemented in 2021. Some €50 million is available in 2025 for a regeneration programme. Some €31 million is available under the planned maintenance voids, with over €10 million of that funding ring-fenced. The disabled persons grant for local authority housing is receiving a budget of €25 million to support improvement works and additionality for existing local authority-owned dwellings in the form of adaptations and extensions, which allow people to live in their communities for as long as possible. The motion refers to the failure to properly fund and maintain homes and the failure to remove the cap associated with the costs of remediation for vacant units. As explained, there is no cap-----

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-----provided a maximum average is maintained across the local authority's programme.

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Given the legal responsibility on local authorities with regard to management and maintenance, they play an important role to ensure adequate budgetary provision for the purpose of housing repairs and cyclical maintenance from their rental income. The funding my Department provides is supplementary rather than available to fully replace local authorities' own self-funding. Returning to the example Deputy Gould gave earlier, in five years the local authority could not find the wherewithal to put in stairs.

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That is not a Government responsibility but a local authority responsibility.

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We will continue doing everything in our power to minimise turnaround times, as referenced in the programme for Government, with the proposed introduction of a new voids programme to support local authorities to ensure their homes comply with the relevant standards and to provide good comfort levels for their tenants and implement strategic programmes for planned maintenance informed by stock condition surveys. When these houses are made vacant, there are families who have just been living in them. How it can take months and years to put new families into those houses in incomprehensible. It should not be happening. As the Minister, I will ensure that local authorities do not indulge in these delays any more. If a family is moving out, a health and safety assessment and basic repairs should be carried out, but leaving houses vacant for months and years on end is not on the Government but on the local authority.

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Vótáil.

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