I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising this matter and for the opportunity to update the Dáil on the modification and expansion of the buy and renew scheme. I am taking this question on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Department has a number of schemes in place targeted at increasing the supply of social housing and working towards ending dereliction. That is a key priority of the Government’s housing policy, Delivering Homes, Building Communities. We are all aware of the existing schemes in croí cónaithe around the vacant refurbishment grant. The Department is finalising specific details on the updated buy and renew scheme, and it is expected a circular will be issued to local authorities in the coming weeks. In the interim, I welcome the opportunity to update the House. It is timely to bring this to the fore because the buy and renew is an important scheme but in its implementation we want to change it in two key ways. First, the buy and renew scheme, which is currently led by local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, is being expanded to include a contractor-led approach. That will have multiple benefits. The aim is to bring forward an additional option for local authorities and approved housing bodies to tackle long-term vacancy and dereliction. It will also provide a potential workstream for local contractors and a stepping stone for tradespeople to move into contracting, bring extra resources to bear in tackling vacancy and dereliction, and give certainty to contractors prepared to bring vacant and derelict properties back into productive use. It will also ultimately increase the supply of social homes. As a further provision, the modified scheme mandates that properties must be both vacant and derelict to be considered for the scheme. This modification will ensure that local authorities and approved housing bodies tackle the most challenging properties first, which may not be easily addressed by any other means. The expanded buy and renew scheme has enormous potential to unlock development that might not otherwise progress in the absence of an assured purchase agreement approach by local authorities or approved housing bodies. This will involve the local authority or approved housing body entering into a fixed-price purchase agreement with the contractor, providing certainty of an end purchaser for the contractor and the provision of new social homes for the local authority or approved housing body once works are completed in accordance with the terms of the purchase agreement. Of course, properties developed under the buy and renew scheme must be in compliance with all other statutory requirements and with the housing regulations around standards for rental properties. This is an important update. It is important that we maximise the benefits of all schemes to bring more properties back on stream. With local authorities identifying these properties and engaging with contractors through the buy and renew scheme, there is huge potential for greater momentum in repurposing and refurbishing existing stock. That has environmental and sustainable advantages compared with building new properties.

Sentiment score: 0.37

I thank Deputy Sherlock for the constructive points she has raised this afternoon. Certainly I feel there are many good local authorities that engage in these types of schemes very proactively. There are also local authorities that fall behind and do not promote them. The modified and expanded buy and renew scheme is a positive and the new parameters are very welcome. The inclusion of the contractor-led approach will give certainty to many local authorities and approved housing bodies. There is a challenge to get small builders and SMEs involved in this type of refurbishment. Many of them are on greenfield sites or involve other large-scale developments. There is a certain niche market for contractors and tradespeople to do this. It is a challenge to bring them into these types of programmes. Along with the derelict property tax, however, it will certainly create an enhanced pipeline for a lot of these types of projects and will inevitably support this scheme. That is what the Department is hoping will happen when we roll it out over the coming weeks. I take Deputy Sherlock's point on how much funding will be allocated to this. We await the detail in the circular that will be delivered to the local authorities in the coming weeks. Measures such as the buy and renew scheme, the vacant refurbishment grant and the urban regeneration and development fund are all programmes we speak about, but action and delivery are now paramount for many town centres that need this refurbishment and need to have new life breathed into their areas. I welcome the discussion today and hope the information is presented in a swift manner.

Sentiment score: 0.32

I thank Deputy Gibney for raising this important matter and giving me the opportunity to update the Dáil on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Critically, the management and maintenance of local authority social housing stock is, first and foremost, a matter for the respective local authority, in this instance Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, in accordance with section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. This includes activating and funding pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, implementing a planned maintenance programme and carrying out responsive repairs. Local authorities must also ensure their tenanted properties comply with the requirements of the Housing (Standards For Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. Notwithstanding what Deputy Gibney has outlined on the statutory obligations, the Department also provides annual funding to local authorities, including Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, to complement the local authorities' own management and maintenance programmes. This funding is provided through the recent planned maintenance and voids programme, the energy efficiency retrofit programme and the disabled persons grant programme. These programmes, together with the Department's local authority estate regeneration programme, will provide €260 million to complement local authority social housing management and maintenance activities this year. This is an increase of almost €60 million on the amount provided to these programmes in 2025. Ultimately, the selection of homes and the nature and prioritisation of works for inclusion in the programme is a matter for the local authority itself. In the past 12 years, the Exchequer has provided more than €31 million to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for its own social housing management and maintenance programme. A further €6.3 million will be provided by the Department in 2026. This includes €1.3 million for the revised planned maintenance and voids programme, which was rolled out to the local authority earlier this month and will support bringing more than 70 vacant social homes back into productive use in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Critically, the new programme will build on the strong progress made in tackling local authority vacancy levels. As I mentioned in reply to Deputy Sherlock earlier, we have the enhanced buy and renew scheme which will be coming on stream in the coming weeks, the vacant refurbishment grant, and significant funding through the URDF for vacant and derelict properties. The planned maintenance and voids programme now takes a more evidence-informed planned maintenance approach and the local authority has updated its management systems, with a further €4.2 million being provided through the Department of climate, energy and the environment through the SEAI retrofit programme. That will see an additional €800,000 being fed through the disabled persons' grant programme. The management and maintenance of housing stock is a statutory requirement and a matter for the local authority itself. My Department will continue to complement the efforts of the local authority through a strategic approach to ensure that the management and maintenance of such stock is kept to a high standard.

Sentiment score: 0.35

Again, I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter and for her contribution. We are in agreement that the standard of social properties being rented out by local authorities should be such that tenants have a good quality of life and their well-being and mental health are being protected. It is not acceptable for anyone to live in damp, mouldy or substandard conditions. That is why the Government has stepped up with additional funding for 2026, with the provision of an extra €60 million for the planned maintenance and voids programme. It is really important that we have access to good quality homes that provide the required comfort levels for the occupants. These homes must meet the standards set out within the rented standard regulation. That is critically important and non-negotiable from the Government's perspective. As I said earlier, as public representatives we all have an obligation to engage with local authorities and their housing sections, especially when these concerns are raised to us. We need to respond and I accept that point. We have taken steps to improve the system but the local authorities themselves have the reserved function to allocate their own resources to these types of programmes and to enhance the housing stock within their areas. I am sure that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has a lot more resources than we have in the west, in County Mayo, for example, in regard to property tax and resources generated on the ground. That said, I take the Deputy's point. We will continue to complement the work of the local authorities on stock improvement programmes. As elected representatives, we need to continue to hold the local authorities to account regarding the condition of their existing stock and to make sure it is up to standard.

Sentiment score: 0.30