Danny Healy-Rae urges action on vacant homes, tenant-in-situ scheme

Thanks Cahirach and I'm glad to get the opportunity to raise this problem here in the Topical Forum today and I hope that you take it serious and I don't want to be laughed at like I was at last week when I addressed the question here inside. This is serious business, anyone that doesn't have a home and is trying to find a property to rent are in very many instances hit with a traumatic event that they're maybe not ever ready for. Since the tenancy's bill was mooted last year, the rental tenancy's bill and the fact that people would have to rent out houses for six years, many people have decided to get out and hundreds of people have been to my office after getting noticed to quit and find themselves with no place to go. I have one for coming out of the back of a transit van to me, that's where he's staying. I have another lady with two young children, I have several of them, bawling, crying every Saturday in Killarney, she's in constantly. There are a number of them, Minister. And first of all, I want to raise the tenant in situ scheme. This would be a great scheme if they're working properly. But the Kerry County Council say that they can't buy houses with the tenants in them because they're not being funded by the department for any repairs or works that would be needed to, to, to, to, to, to, so that they could buy the house. This is very wrong as Kerry County Council could rent it back to the tenant at local authority rent prices and maybe later on could sell it to the tenant when they get on their feet. All of us elected here in this chamber are in support of this tenant in situ scheme. And to allow families to continue renting, as I have said before, if they got on their feet they could finish up buying it out. I'm asking the Minister to go back and look at this scheme and start it out, especially in Kerry. I don't know if this is happening in other places or not. Dean Minister, there are many vacant houses around our county. And I gave the instance before where there are 54 houses between Kinmere and Kilgarvan, going through Kilgarvan and within six or seven miles of Killarney town. There are 54 houses where you could step off, step out onto the bus, the TFI bus, and every old that's passing going to Kinmere and Kilgarvan. And it's a crying shame that so many of these houses are vacant when people are looking for houses. And I'm asking you to dedicate some team to go around and see what would help. These people are incentivizing to rent back the house. The biggest problem they have is they fear they can't get back the house when they're rented out. And there's a scheme there for the Ukraine people where there's 600 paid by the state tax-free to the landlord. And the most important thing then is if the landlord wants the house back, in that instance they can get the house back in four weeks. Not months and years like is happening in other cases and they have turned many landlords off when they want to get their house back. They can't get it back. I'll give you one instance. A man bought a house in Kilgarvan and he said he couldn't come back from Australia for 12 months. Someone begged him to rent it to him. And he did. But when he came back from Australia after 12 months, he didn't get into his own house for three years. There were the blockages that need to be freed out and to ensure that people would rent out these vacant houses. There are so many of them around the country, around this island, every place. I'm asking you to deal with that. Thank you very much. Fair play to you for advocating, especially on behalf of those people who are coming in to you in desperation, just looking for a house to rent. And I understand the frustration. We all have it in our constituencies. I'll try outlining what the government is trying to do to free up rental accommodation. Delivering Homes, Building Communities, Ireland's new housing plan is a wide-ranging action plan focused on housing supply and targeting homelessness. The plan contains a suite of actions that will increase the supply of much-needed rental accommodation by keeping existing landlords in the market and attracting new landlords, while ensuring strong and balanced tenancy protections for both tenants and landlords. The government is establishing a more robust legal and policy framework to support increased investment in the rental market, to increase the choice for renters and, over time, reduce market rents. The Residential Tenancies Bill 2026 is currently passing through the Houses of the Oireachtas. To support an increase of available rental accommodation, the government has also brought forward key measures, including a revised national planning framework, enabling the zoning of significantly more land and the revision of design standards for apartments. These measures, along with a reduced fat rate of 9% on apartments announced as part of Project 2026, are focused on unlocking the delivery of apartments key to increasing the supply of rental properties. The government is also continuing to develop a cost, development of cost rental as a new tenure type, which is providing homes to tenants at at least 25% below market rent, by providing very significant levels of funding support to the Land Development Agency, approved housing bodies and local authorities. While it has been asserted that landlords are leaving the rental market, the RTB Director's report showed that while 5,405 notices of termination were received by the RTB in Q3 of 2025, there were also 18,425 new tenancy registrations confirmed for Q3 of 2025. This figure serves to highlight the consistent churn within the rental market. The Deputy suggests using the tenant in situ scheme to address the scarcity of rental accommodation. The tenant in situ scheme, as it has been referred to, is an acquisitions programme specifically in respect of those who are at risk of homelessness and are already qualified for social support, such as HAP, which the Deputy has outlined in many of those situations. Just to say on that, there was €275 million provided last year for local authority acquisitions. It is an emergency measure and it should only be used by local authorities as a last resort when all other options to prevent homelessness have been exhausted. Our focus must be on constructing new social homes, but I note that significant funding will be provided through our acquisition programme of second-hand homes for those at risk of homelessness again under the 2026 programme, as a response to the short-term pressures affording local authorities the flexibility needed to respond while they scale up their construction programmes. The Deputy also suggested that vacant property refurbishment grant could be used to address the scarcity of rental accommodation. The vacant property refurbishment grant provides a grant of up to €50,000 for the refurbishment of homes that have been vacant for at least two years and up to €70,000 where it is a derelict property. It is available in respect of homes for occupation as a principal private residence and properties which will be made available for rent and therefore does increase the supply of homes available to rent. That could address the issue of the plethora of vacant houses that you are referring to, Deputy Healy Ray. In providing a grant to support the refurbishment of vacant and derelict properties, the grant is incentivising individual landlords across the country who, without the support of the grant, would not be able to renovate and turn these disused properties into homes for rent. It has become a vital, affordable support, particularly in more rural areas where supply of new housing is not readily available and is also supporting the regeneration of towns and villages and areas of our cities, as well as supporting environmental objectives. I look forward to listening to more of what the Deputy has to say in relation to this issue. Thank you, Mr. Deputy. Thanks very much, Minister. I am asking again about the Tindent and Citrus Scheme. You were saying there is money being allocated. I wanted to talk to Kerry Colter to see what is wrong, why they cannot operate the Tindent and Citrus Scheme. You see, elected members in Kerry have been asking the local authority to buy landbags to build local authority houses in small villages like Scotland, like Guinea Villa, like Fyries, like Corns, like Cora and Corns, all them kind of places. But you know what I am hearing now is that they are slow to buy these landbags now because they will be hit with the residential zone land tax. Is that right, Minister? That is serious. Where is the proposal to allow granny flats to operate behind residential properties? This was moved here about 12 months ago and nothing has happened since. Where is the proposal about modular homes? I do not see them materialising in Kerry. It was to be a faster way of delivering houses. And then the problem that I am raising here constantly, Minister, is the fact that so many people in Kerry can't build a house of their own for the one reason they can't get planning permission. Who is dealing with that? Where is it going to be? Is it going to be sorted out? It is time it was. I mean, goddammit, if these people will go to the expense and try to build a house for themselves, surely the smallest bit of help that we could give them is to give them a fair crack at planning permission or get it because this urban generated clause is causing severe difficulty away out from towns where people that were never living in a town are being denied the right to build a house for themselves. I am actually pleased to do something about those things. Thank you, Deputy. I have a very look and thank you again, Healy Ray. And look, in relation to proposals for modular homes or small units in back gardens essentially or on the premises of existing homes, that will be coming forward shortly. And that is really important. It will be an exemption for certain types of dwelling, certain size of dwelling to allow young people in particular who want to start off with a home to build with an exemption so they do not have to go through that arduous planning process. As well as that, I completely agree with you 100% being a West Cork TD in relation to the challenges that young people are facing when it comes to planning permission, on their own land in particular. The obstacles that they have to go through, the barriers, the frustration, the headaches and the stress that causes them. And in many cases they are not successful. That has to change. And within the next while we are bringing forward the National Planning Statement, which I hope will address many of those issues. I want to address another issue that has been topical, I suppose, over the last couple of weeks. You talk about the amount of vacant homes and properties that are not in use right throughout the year. And the whole aim of the short-term letting legislation which has come in, which has been controversial, and I can see why. But the whole aim of that is to try to bring more property into rental accommodation. So the constituents that you have come into your office and I have come into my office who are struggling to get rental accommodation because they go on to Daftad a year, they go on to these rental properties, and there is nothing to rent. The whole idea is that we get some amount of these houses back into the rental market. And that will release a pressure valve. I absolutely... You are from Kerry, I am from West Cork. We rely on tourism. We rely on tourism accommodation. It is important that we have these short-term nets available for the tourist sector. There is no doubt about that. But someone referenced a figure to me recently that in the region of 6,000 units were available for short-term let in the West Cork area. If we could only get about 200 of them even back into the rental market, can you imagine the pressure that would take off? I understand the need for short-term letting. I understand that people have been doing this for years and we have to clarify the planning requirements. But I think this provides an opportunity to allow people to rent long-term, which is a big issue in places like Kerry and West Cork. Thank you, Minister. Deputy... I know, but... Thank you, Deputy. Deputy... You are talking about lack of rental accommodation. Deputy... Deputy...