Housing Schemes Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West I also welcome the school pupils. Is the school in west Cork? It is in Westmeath. I am from west Cork so it is the centre of everything, but Westmeath is a lovely county as well. I welcome the pupils to the Seanad. I thank Senator Kennelly for raising this issue. Before I read the statement, I hear that one of the reasons the Senator thinks the tenant in situ scheme is not being used regularly in Kerry is that the cost of renovation is not included and the local authority, when it is pricing or valuing a house, has to work the cost of renovation into the valuation. Therefore, even if the sellers of the properties agree to sell them with the tenants in situ, they feel they are not getting the prices they should because the council is factoring in those costs. I think that is what is happening, but perhaps the Senator will clarify. If so, I agree that we should perhaps look at it. The Minister for housing will shortly approve the parameters and funding details of this year’s programme and local authorities will be notified of their respective 2026 allocations shortly thereafter. Last year, some €375 million was allocated to local authorities for acquisitions. Of this, only €290 million was drawn down, including €52 million for refurbishment costs. This funding was given to local authorities for an estimated 775 acquisitions, including almost 490 tenant in situ acquisitions. The 2026 programme will fund eligible acquisitions under three priority streams, namely, exits from homeless services; priority acquisitions for older persons, care leavers and people with disabilities; and tenant in situ acquisitions. It will continue to be a policy tool for local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, to prevent social housing supported households in the private rental sector falling into homelessness, and support the exit of households from long-term homeless accommodation. Significant funding will again be available to help to alleviate short-term pressures, affording local authorities the flexibility needed to respond while they scale up their construction programmes. I note there is no tenant in situ scheme as such, rather, tenant in situ acquisitions are a last resort policy tool available to local authorities through the second-hand acquisitions programme. This has always been the case. Undoubtedly, tenant in situ acquisition is an important tool, but it is absolutely not the only, or even the primary, tool available. It should only be used when all other options to prevent a household becoming homeless have been exhausted. It should never be used as a default first-response option. It remains the case that, as a first step, the relevant local authority tenancy sustainment officer should engage with the relevant landlord on whether the threatened tenancy can be maintained within the current or an alternative social housing scheme. If this is not possible, the local authority must help the tenant to secure alternative private rental accommodation. Where an existing or alternative tenancy cannot be secured, the local authority must examine if a tenancy in a local authority or an AHB social home can be facilitated. Where these options have proved unfeasible, the local authority may proceed to support a tenant in situ acquisition. While the parameters of the new second-hand acquisitions programme are yet to be agreed, with almost 17,000 people currently residing in homeless accommodation, the programme will focus this year on exiting households from long-term homeless accommodation. Some €150 million will be ring-fenced for this purpose. More than adequate funding will be available in 2026 to support any acquisitions that can be progressed by local authorities or AHBs. The multi-annual approach introduced in 2025 will also continue, with local authorities authorised to enter into commitments for 2027 up to a value of 30% of their baseline 2026 acquisitions budget. This will allow local authorities to plan and progress acquisitions between annual programmes with certainty vis-à-vis future funding availability. Notably, at the end of January this year, less than half the €95 million available to be committed in 2025 for acquisitions in 2026 was actually committed by local authorities. I will continue in my second response. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-18