This has been an issue for many of us across the House over the past couple of months. It has been flagged repeatedly by Government TDs as well as Opposition TDs. I would like to specifically talk about Cork city and county. Some 33 families in Cork city and around the same number in Cork county are currently in limbo. They are unsure what is happening with their applications for the tenant in situ scheme. I have seen the various pieces of correspondence between Departments and the local authorities over the past eight months. Having read that correspondence it was quite clear to me that there was permission for the local authorities to exceed their initial allocations by up to 50%. Both Cork City Council and Cork County Council have taken advantage of that and tried to progress additional applications for the tenant in situ scheme. I understand why the Department of housing and the Department of public expenditure might have concerns about the way the scheme is being utilised by some local authorities, which were perhaps covering up for their own shortcomings in other areas of housing delivery and used the scheme to get out of the fix in which they found themselves. However, I can safely say that was not the case in either Cork City Council or Cork County Council where the scheme was utilised in the spirit in which it was intended, such as cases of families in danger of becoming homeless and going into emergency accommodation. Cork City Council and Cork County Council are, unfortunately, being punished because every local authority in the country has been tarred with the one brush. If the scheme is to be tightened up I would prefer that to be focused on the local authorities that are not doing their job and that are letting the side down, rather than punishing local authorities like Cork City Council and Cork County Council. By any metric – be it social housing delivery, affordable housing delivery or the delivery of private homes - both Cork City Council and Cork County Council have delivered. That is patently clear from the available figures. I am deeply disappointed because, like all Deputies here, I am dealing with people in clinics weekly, many of whom are on the tenant in situ scheme and waiting for it to be unpaused, which is essentially what has happened in both Cork City Council and Cork County Council. The sale of approximately 30 properties is currently paused in both local authorities. It is only a matter of time before the landlords get fed up and enforce the eviction notices. More than likely, the properties will be sold privately and the tenants will have to enter emergency accommodation. We must get our act together in the coming weeks. I have spoken to the Taoiseach, the Minister for housing and the Minister for public expenditure about this and I believe a resolution is on the way, but while we wait for it to be introduced I fear that more families will not avail of the scheme and more local authorities will not be able to draw down funds for the scheme, which is unfortunately likely to lead to more families going into emergency accommodation. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could give me an update on the resumption of the scheme, which has effectively been paused in both Cork City Council and Cork County Council.

Sentiment score: -0.00

I thank the Minister of State. I might pick up on the last point. It is interesting to hear that only 20% of the fund has been drawn down. I know that in the case of both Cork City Council and Cork County Council they have drawn down the full allocation for 2025, or committed to it. If only 20% of the funding has been drawn down, could the reallocation of the funding from other local authorities not be considered if they have not drawn it down? Does the Minister of State have figures for 2024 which show whether the full allocation was drawn down? I am interested in hearing about that. The Minister of State referred to the merits of the scheme. I do not need to be convinced of how good the scheme is; we all know the scheme works. As he outlined, it has delivered 3,300 second-hand acquisitions. It is a great scheme. I just do not understand why we are barring people from availing of it, which is effectively what we are doing. Whether we like to admit it here or not, we are doing that because a commitment was given to local authorities to go beyond the 2024 allocation and proactive local authorities such as Cork City Council and Cork County Council did exactly that. They used the scheme to its fullest extent and then they went beyond it, as per the circular, and exceeded their targets by 50%. They were permitted to do that. At that time, nobody flagged with either local authority in Cork or elsewhere that the money would affect their budget in 2025, which is what has happened. The logical step is to increase the budget for 2025 to allow people to engage with the scheme and to allow local authorities to start acquiring more properties. To be fair to her, the director of services in Cork City Council very rarely makes a public comment about Government decisions like this, but she said this would have a significant effect on the prevention of homelessness in Cork. That is the reality of what we are doing.

Sentiment score: 0.31