I propose to take Questions Nos. 1044, 1045, 1046, 1047, 1048 and 1057 together.
Tenancy 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.
Accordingly, there is no application process for landlords or tenants. It is solely a matter for each local authority to determine whether an acquisition is the appropriate policy response in a given situation.
No decision was taken to limit acquisitions under any category of the programme.
The parameters of the 2026 Social Housing Second Hand Acquisitions Programme, including individual local authority priority category allocations were notified to local authorities via Department Circular in February.
Some €373 million is available for drawdown by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies under the 2026 programme priorities as follows:
• Exits from Homelessness Acquisitions - €150 million.
• AHB Priority Delivery Acquisitions, supporting older persons, persons with disabilities, care leavers - €50 million.
• LA Priority Acquisitions including tenancy sustainment or tenant-in-situ acquisitions - €157 million.
A contingency fund of €16 million will also be retained. It will be available for local authorities that have drawndown most of their initial allocation but still have capacity to complete further acquisitions and drawdown funding from my Department this year.
The funding available is sufficient to support at least 1,000 acquisitions this year.
Further to this, the multi-annual approach introduced last year will continue in 2026. Local authorities may commit up to the value of 30% of their base 2026 allocations (total c.€85 million) for acquisitions that will complete or drawdown funding in 2027. This will allow priority acquisitions to progress in the closing months of 2026, with certainty on funding in 2027, if such purchases do not complete this year.
As Tenancy sustainment is not a stand-alone programme it does not have its own individual allocation and as such there was no allocation reduction.
For clarity, more than adequate funding was available under the 2025 programme to complete any acquisitions needed to respond to urgent cases. Notably, local authorities only recouped some €290 million of the initial €325 million made available under the 2025 programme.
Ultimately, the delivery of new additional social homes is the only strategic solution to address long-term homelessness, with allocations from new and existing local authority and AHB social homes the primary means through which social housing qualified households should be accommodated. With the social housing new build programme gathering momentum and providing more social housing, this will allow for a reduced reliance on the second hand acquisitions programme over the coming years.
Since the introduction of Tenancy Sustainment acquisitions as a category in 2023, the average cost per dwelling acquired through the Second Hand Acquisition Programme over the period 2023 to 2025 is an estimated €295,000.
My Department does not have any details sought by the Deputy in relation to an evidence-based assessment, risk or modelling analysis.
