Eoin Ó Broin
Ceist:
447. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the total cost to the Exchequer from the staffing of local authority housing departments in 2025; and the number of staff that funding covers. [47292/26]
Amharc ar fhreagra
The information requested is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy in accordance with Standing Orders.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Orders.
My Department supplies funding and has provided approvals for a variety of posts and staffing related expenses in local authorities to address housing delivery and supports.
My Department has approved 250.25 housing posts in local authorities to address social housing delivery (162 no. technical posts and 88.25 no. administrative posts). A Department sanction was given for 27.6 local authority staff in 2025 to deliver the “Offer a Home” scheme. My Department also funded 61 staff across local authorities in 2025 to support the Traveller Accommodation Scheme.
There are also approvals in place under the Affordable Housing Fund for 140.5 additional specialist and administrative staff to drive affordable housing delivery throughout the country. Under the Croí Conaithe Towns Fund, there are 32 Vacant Homes Officers, 1 in each local authority, except for Tipperary that has 2 VHOs.
Both the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) provide administration funding to local authorities to meet the full range of costs associated with administering both schemes. This funding is partially used for staffing costs but is not provided specifically for individual staffing posts.
Exchequer funding for homeless services is provided through my Department to housing authorities on a regional basis, under the categories ‘8A - Housing Authority Preventative Services’ and ‘8B - Other Housing Authority Services including Administration’. Local authorities may recoup up to 90% of the costs of these services from my Department. The information available indicates that 324 posts were funded under these categories in 2025. To note, my Department does not fund any homeless service directly but provides funding to housing authorities towards the operational costs of homeless accommodation and related services under Section 10 of the Housing Act, 1988. Under Exchequer funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of services from their own resources.
The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 specify requirements in relation to a range of matters, such as structural repair, sanitary facilities, heating, ventilation, natural light, fire safety and the safety of gas, oil and electrical installations. Responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations in the private rental and AHB sectors rests with the relevant local authority. My Department uses the A.25 Rental Accommodation Inspection subhead to support local authorities in carrying out their inspection and enforcement roles. The subvention is based on the level of inspection activity in the previous period. The funding is used as a subvention to assist local authorities meet their inspection obligations - it does not necessarily cover the full-cost of their inspection programmes. Local authority costs incurred in performing this function include staffing, information technology, transport and administration. My Department has no data on how much of the Exchequer subvention was used by local authorities in 2025 to help meet staffing costs.
The details on 2025 expenditure will be available on publication of my Department’s 2025 Appropriation Account.
