Housing Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

I thank Deputy O'Reilly very much. The Minister, Deputy Browne, passes on his apologies that he could not be here and asked me to take this on his behalf.
Tenancy sustainment, which includes the purchase of private homes where a social housing tenant is in situ , is not a stand-alone programme or scheme. However, it is a priority category of the Department of housing’s social housing second-hand acquisitions programme, which helps prevent social housing-supported households in the private rental sector from becoming homeless, as the Deputy said. Tenancy sustainment, or tenant in situ, is an option for local authorities to support households who are 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 other options have been exhausted. They are not the sole, or indeed the primary, option. The default first option should always be securing the sustainment of the tenancy with the landlord, securing alternative accommodation through the tenancy sustainment and place finder services, or allocating a local authority or approved housing body tenancy via a new build home or relet. Where acquisitions are deemed necessary in terms of a tenant in situ , local authorities have delegated sanction to pursue individual priority acquisitions without recourse to the Department of housing, where these acquisitions are in line with the broad parameters and criteria of the second-hand acquisitions programme.
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. At the end of February, so about two weeks after the first email Deputy O'Reilly quoted from 18 February, the Minister, Deputy Browne, secured funding to a total of €373 million to fund acquisitions under the Department of housing’s social housing second-hand acquisitions programme. That funding will be available for drawdown by local authorities and approved housing bodies under the 2026 programme priorities. Those priorities include: exits from homelessness, with €150 million allocated; AHB priority delivery to support older persons, persons with disabilities and care leavers, with €50 million allocated; and local authority priority acquisitions, which includes tenancy sustainment or tenant in situ acquisitions, with €157 million allocated. A contingency fund of €16 million will also be retained to be there to top up where local authorities have drawn down and fully exhausted their initial allocation, because we want to continue to enable them to be ambitious and to continue to drive these acquisitions.
Fingal County Council has been given an initial allocation of €30.7 million of this funding. That is a 54% increase on its allocation for last year. This funding is now available to the council. I note the second family in question made contact with the council on 28 April, so I am not sure why it is giving them that response given it now has its initial allocation of €30.7 million of this funding. Ultimately, the delivery of new additional social homes is the only strategic solution when it comes to 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. I appreciate what the Deputy is saying about how the tenant in situ programme is really important for many families and that is why Fingal County Council has been given a 54% uplift in this year's allocation. I hope it will use that to support families in the Deputy's constituency like the ones who contacted her.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30