2025-12-18

I also wish happy Christmas to all the staff, the Ceann Comhairle and the Ministers. Nollaig Shona. I look forward to continuing our engagement in the new year. I will refer to one case in particular in my constituency but I wish to raise the broader issue affecting people which we are being inundated about. It is the issue of people facing eviction. They are being evicted from the private rental sector. These are families and individuals. A policy brought in after the temporary Covid eviction ban was lifted was the tenant in situ scheme. Everyone acknowledges the tenant in situ scheme has been a very effective homeless prevention measure. The housing committee had very important presentations, which I hope the Minister of State will look at, from Focus Ireland and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive this week. It showed the tenant in situ scheme was a really key measure in preventing homelessness in 2024. I will talk about one case which shows the necessity of this scheme. This is the case of a family which was facing eviction. My office has been dealing with the mother. They have had to leave their rental home and are living in the husband’s parents’ house. It is extremely overcrowded with seven people in the house. The eldest daughter sleeps on the couch in the living room. The two sons share a room with their grandmother. The other daughter shares a room with her grandfather. The woman, her husband and their baby sleep in another room. They have been looking for a home for quite a few years and had not found anything suitable before they received their notice to quit. They had contacted the council in April when they received the eviction letter to see if the tenant in situ scheme could support them but at that time the council said the scheme was effectively paused until there was clarity on it. As a result, they had to leave their home. The mother was in touch with us. She told us she cries every night. She has started taking antidepressants a week ago and she and her husband break up multiple times a day over arguments blaming one another about who is at fault that they got into this situation. She said she knows many people in the same situation and that they are all living this. She said she is grateful there is a roof over their heads but she will go to any length so her kids do not end up in a hotel with herself and her husband in the same room for an unknown amount of time where they are even more crowded than they are now. This is an example of the tenant in situ scheme failing to support those families as a result of it being paused. I have been in touch with the council since then. It says the scheme is being operated but there are eligibility requirements, so it is being restricted in terms of who is eligible for funding for it. Will the Minister of State address that and clarify the eligibility changes to the tenant in situ scheme? I am very concerned it is limiting its potential to prevent families like this from being made homeless. When the head of housing at Dublin City Council was at the housing committee this week where we discussed homelessness I asked him how the scheme was functioning. He said that while it was back functioning there are issues of eligibility and issues where repairs are required to a home that is currently rented privately and that is not up to standard because there is not funding there to do up those homes.

Like everyone else, I wish the Ceann Comhairle, the staff and our colleagues, Deputy Hearne and my colleague here, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, all the best and a good Christmas. Everyone needs a break. I wish everyone a peaceful, productive and robust new year. I wish to thank Deputy Hearne for raising this matter and for the opportunity to update the Dáil on tenant in situ acquisitions. I am taking this matter on behalf of James Browne, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Acquisitions with tenants in situ are a category of purchase under the second-hand acquisitions programme which help prevent social housing supported households in the private rental sector, such as HAP, from becoming homeless. In this regard, tenant in situ acquisitions are a policy tool available to local authorities once all other options and measures to prevent a household becoming homeless have been examined. Along with the clear focus of Government on increasing the supply of new build social and affordable homes, a targeted social housing acquisition programme has been, and will continue to be, an important policy response to priority needs. The Minister for housing has this year secured funding to a total of €325 million to fund acquisitions under his Department's social housing second-hand acquisitions programme, an increase from €60 million per year committed to under Housing for All. Dublin City Council has been allocated €95 million of this funding. This allocation funds acquisitions under four categories, including: exits from homeless services; tenancy sustainment, namely tenant in situ; persons with disabilities and older persons requiring urgent housing responses; and buy and renew actions tackling vacancy and dereliction. More recently, the Minister has secured an additional €50 million which has been ring-fenced for acquisitions supporting households, particularly those larger families with children and Housing First clients, to exit long-term homeless accommodation. Of that, Dublin City Council were allocated €22 million. To date this year, nationally, 163 acquisitions have been completed to support exits from homelessness and into housing. A further 482 tenant in situ acquisitions have been completed, ultimately preventing those households from becoming homeless. Dublin City Council has completed 59 acquisitions to support households exiting homelessness into housing and 134 tenant in situ acquisitions preventing these households from becoming homeless. The Department does not have to hand the number of these that were in the Dublin North-West constituency but the officials in Dublin City Council can provide this information. With more than 16,600 persons in this State without a home, including some 2,450 families and more than 5,200 children, our focus has to be to maximise the impact of the funding available to us for those households facing the most precarious housing situations. Where Dublin City Council acquires a property with a tenant in situ and where refurbishments are required the property will be put into their planned maintenance programme for future consideration. I do not know the particular circumstances of the family whose case the Deputy raised but I have no doubt it is very difficult. If the Deputy would like to bring the particular circumstances to the Minister for housing and the Department, it is something we can follow up. I do not know the particular circumstances but there are obviously issues of confidentiality as well. The tenant in situ scheme is part of the overall acquisition scheme itself in terms of a local authority's purchase programme. The refurbishment fund is to allow local authorities to acquire properties under HAP, where there is a tenant. Properties must be maintained to a standard and conform to the regulations for rental properties. Any refurbishment should be provided by the local authority under its planned maintenance programme.

I want to highlight the issue and to really push the Minister of State on it. Could he take it back to the Minister as well? There needs to be a step-change in how this Government approaches the tenant in situ scheme. When we look at the funding that has been allocated, it is €22 million to enable the purchase of homes for those who are in long-term homelessness, but at €400,000 per home, that is only 55 homes. There are 422 families in Dublin in emergency accommodation for longer than two years. The funding is simply not adequate. For the allocation of €95 million, we are talking about maybe 250 homes. The figures might sound like a lot, but it is not sufficient or adequate when we look at it in terms of the number of homes that can be purchased. My concern is that thousands of households currently in receipt of the housing assistance payment are facing no-fault evictions, and that will continue even when the changes begin in March. We have a ticking time bomb that is actually exploding now in terms of the mass scale of evictions going on of HAP households that cannot afford the market rent. If they are evicted, there is nowhere they can afford to go. That is ongoing now. It is why we see so many presentations into homelessness but it is going to get even worse in the coming years. There must be more focus on the tenant in situ scheme to prevent households who are in receipt of HAP from going into homelessness. A lot more funding needs to go into it because landlords say they are willing to sell the property, but the councils are too slow in responding and the issues around eligibility and lack of clarity on funding have added to this problem. I call on the Government to take action, in particular on the issue of maintenance. Councils need to be given a green light so that if a family or an individual is facing eviction from their home, where they are in receipt of HAP, the council can buy the property regardless of what it costs ultimately. It is cheaper to keep people in their homes than for them to go into emergency accommodation.

Once again, I thank Deputy Hearne for raising this matter, which I am taking behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Browne. I urge the Deputy to provide those details on behalf of his constituents to the Minister and the Department. Supporting households at risk of experiencing homelessness remains a priority for the Government. The tenant in situ scheme is a key measure in this regard. There was scope available within the original €325 million to support all acquisitions that could be completed. Local authorities that indicated they would expend their full allocation but could progress and complete additional acquisitions by drawing down the relevant funding this year were approved to do so. Dublin City Council was approved to progress additional acquisitions on this basis. That is important to note. 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 to commit some €95 million extra in 2025 for acquisitions that will complete and draw down next 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 Dublin City Council with the ability to commit €28.5 million for acquisitions that will complete and draw down in 2026. This includes acquisitions to support exits from homelessness and tenancy sustainment via the tenant in situ scheme. The Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, is committed to supporting and funding the acquisition of properties with tenants in situ, where all other options and measures to prevent households becoming homeless have been examined. Ultimately, it is all about increasing housing supply. That remains the key focus, but it is also a priority in terms of dealing with homelessness. Part of that is the tenant in situ scheme, which is there to contribute in terms of preventing people from going into homelessness. I wish everybody a happy Christmas.

That concludes Topical Issues. I wish both the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and Deputy Hearne a very peaceful, happy Christmas. They will probably not still be here for the next debate.