Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 March 2026
329. Deputy George Lawlor asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of homes in Galway City and County Galway purchased under the tenant-in-situ scheme for each year since 2023; the allocations provided to Galway City Council and Galway County Council for the scheme for each year since 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21121/26]
View answerTenancy sustainment, or tenant-in-situ, is not a stand alone programme or scheme. It is a priority category of my Department's Social Housing Second Hand Acquisitions Programme.
Tenant in situ is an option for local authorities to support households in the most precarious housing situations. Such acquisitions are, and will continue to be, available to local authorities for use as a last resort when all other options have been exhausted.
However, they will never be the sole, or even the primary, option. The default first options should almost always be securing the sustainment of the tenancy with the landlord, securing alternative accommodation through the Tenancy Sustainment and Placefinder services, or allocating a local authority or Approved Housing Body tenancy via a new build home or re-let.
Where acquisitions are deemed necessary, Local authorities have delegated sanction to pursue individual priority acquisitions without recourse to my Department, where these acquisitions are in line with the broad parameters and criteria of the Second Hand Acquisitions Programme.
My Department publishes comprehensive programme-level statistics quarterly for social housing delivery, including for social housing acquisitions by local authorities. These data are currently available to end Q3 2025 and can be accessed at www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/.
The initial 2025 and 2026 financial allocations for Galway City Council and Galway County Council under the Second Hand Social Housing Acquisitions Programme are set out below:
|
|
Initial 2025 Allocation |
Initial 2026 Allocation |
|
Galway City Council |
€8 million |
€11.5 million |
|
Galway County Council |
€6 million |
€3.2 million |
Financial allocations under the Second Hand Acquisitions Programme were not provided to local authorities in 2023 and 2024. Rather, each local authority was authorised to complete a specific number of acquisitions within the overall scope available under the Programme of 1,500 homes in each year. A different approach was taken in 2025. A financial allocation rather than a 'unit allocation was provided to each individual local authority to support acquisitions across the priority categories as deemed appropriate.
