Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
526. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of local authority vacant homes (voids) in County Waterford; the average re-let time; and the amount spent bringing them back into use in 2023, 2024 and 2025, in tabular form. [73724/25]
View answerThe management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure all of their tenanted properties comply with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019.
Accordingly, the number of vacant social homes, and the amounts spent bringing those homes back into use, should be sought directly from the respective local authorities.
That said, my Department's Planned Maintenance and Voids Programme has made €31 million available to local authorities this year to support the refurbishment and re-letting of a minimum of 1,900 homes, and continue the transition from a reactive, voids approach to a planned maintenance approach.
An annualised breakdown of the funding provided to each local authority and the number of properties remediated under the voids programme from 2014 to end-2024 is available at www.gov.ie/en/collection/0906a-other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics/#voids-programme.
Local authorities will always have a level of vacancy in their housing stock, which will fluctuate over time, as tenancy surrender and re-letting of stock is a continuous process. Therefore, ongoing data in relation to vacant local authority owned homes is not routinely collated by my Department.
However, statistics in relation to social housing stock, at a point in time, are published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in their Annual Reports on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities. These reports provide a range of information, including levels of vacancy and average turnaround times for re-letting local authority owned properties. The most recent report for 2024 is available on the NOAC website at: www.noac.ie/noac_publications/report-77-noac-performance-indicator-report-2024/
