Housing Provision

Tuesday, 16 December 2025

Questions (596, 597)

Thomas Gould

Question:

596. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the allocation for 2026 social housing acquisition programme. [72150/25]

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597. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of tenant-in-situ sales approved in Cork city and county respectively to date in 2025. [72151/25]

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Written answers

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage

I propose to take Questions Nos. 596 and 597 together.

I expect the parameters of the 2026 Second Hand Acquisitions Programme, including individual local authority allocations, to be notified to local authorities early next year.

Progress by Cork City and Cork County Councils under the 2025 Second Hand Acquisitions Programme is set out in the table below.

-	Allocation	Current Projected Drawdown	Total Acquisitions to Date	Homeless Exit Acquisitions	Tenancy Sustainment Acquisitions	Priority Cohorts Acquisitions	Buy and Renew Acquisitions
Cork City	€20m	€21m	63	28	27	2	6
Cork County	€15m	€9.9m	34	5	28	1	0

I allocated an additional €2 million in September to support acquisitions by Cork City Council for households, particularly larger families with children, to exit emergency homeless accommodation into housing. Any funding not drawn down from this allocation this year will be carried into 2026 and remain ringfenced from the council's broader 2026 Second-Hand Acquisitions Programme allocation.

Notably, there was more than adequate scope available within the original €325 million allocated to the programme this year to support all acquisitions that could be completed by local authorities by end-year. Accordingly, those local authorities that indicated they would likely expend their full initial allocation, but could progress and complete additional acquisitions and draw down the relevant funding this year if additional monies were available, were approved to do so. Both Cork City and County Councils were approved to progress additional acquisitions on this basis.

Local authorities have also been authorised to enter into commitments for 2026 to a value of up to 30% of their original 2025 acquisitions budget. This has allowed them commit, pending an agreed programme budget for 2026, some €95 million extra in 2025 for acquisitions that will complete and draw down nest year. 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.

This provides Cork City and County Councils with scope to commit €6 million and €4.5 million respectively for acquisitions would be likely only to complete and drawdown in 2026. This includes acquisitions to support exits from homelessness, tenancy sustainment via tenant in situ, and other priority cohorts such as older persons, persons with disabilities, etc.