Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that: — under significant pressure from the Opposition, the Government reopened the Social Housing Tenant in-Situ Scheme in 2022, and, following further pressure from the Opposition, provided much needed flexibility in the operation of the scheme in 2023;

— since April 2023, more than 2,500 households have been prevented from becoming homeless because of the scheme;

— 16,546 notices of termination were issued to private rental tenants last year, with more than half of those on the grounds of landlords intending to sell the property; and

— the number of people in Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage funded emergency homeless accommodation increased by 13 per cent in the last year to 15,286 people, including 4,603 children; expresses concern that: — the Social Housing Tenant in-Situ Scheme has been suspended since the end of last year, due to the failure of Government to agree the funding and targets for 2025, with hundreds of applications left pending without a decision due to lack of funding;

— there is a concerted effort by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to reduce the funding for, and restrict the operation of, the scheme;

— Approved Housing Bodies are effectively excluded from the scheme, arising from an inability to access Capital Advance Leasing Facility funding for acquisitions; and

— the result of these factors is that greater numbers of people are being put at risk of homelessness, and landlords are disincentivised from engaging with the scheme; and agrees that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage must: — ensure that local authorities have the maximum level of funding to be able to operate the Social Housing Tenant in-Situ Scheme at the same level as 2024, and that the funding levels allocated for 2025 will be reviewed mid-year;

— provide local authorities with the maximum level of flexibility in the operation of the scheme, in line with its operation in 2023 and 2024;

— reject the new restrictions being proposed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to the scheme, including:

— the strict requirement for a Notice of Termination and Residential Tenancies Board registration;

— the exclusion of reasonable refurbishment costs;

— the de-prioritisation of single people and couples without children; and

— the two-year rule, whereby the owner of the property must be in receipt of a social housing support payment for a period of two years; and

— provide local authorities with their capital allocations and targets for 2025 as a matter of urgency, to allow them to process all outstanding applications and reopen the scheme to new applications.

I wish to share time with my colleagues.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister knows, last year, more than 16,000 eviction notices were issued by landlords to tenants in the private rental sector and more than half of those eviction notices were on grounds of sale. The sale of property is the single largest driver of homelessness for families, couples, singles and pensioners. As a consequence, in the past year alone, the number of people in emergency accommodation funded by the Department has increased by a significant 13%. We have never had as many adults and children, single people, couples, families and pensioners in emergency accommodation since these records began.

In April 2023, under pressure from the Opposition and front-line homeless service providers, the tenant in situ scheme was properly reopened and local authorities, in particular, were given the flexibility they needed to ensure they could buy homes to prevent families and singles becoming homeless. While we do not have the final figures for last year, somewhere in the region of 2,500 households have been prevented from the problem of homelessness because of that scheme. This scheme is working very well. The parliamentary questions that the Minister signed off on today with respect to the scheme, which came from Deputies of all parties, Government and Opposition, show this. Unfortunately, the scheme has always had its opponents, both in the Government and the Civil Service. There are some who think the State should not be using any of its capital funding for acquisitions. I have heard people suggest that, somehow, local authorities are taking the easy option by buying these homes when other options are available for people at risk of homelessness.

While there is no evidence to support any of that, there are two very significant problems right now, and the Minister knows what both of them are. The failure of the Government last year to set the capital ceilings and targets for this year means the scheme is paused and there are hundreds of applications pending a decision across the State. More worryingly, the memo that was sent by the Department to local authorities a number of weeks ago set out a series of new and significant restrictions to the scheme. If adequate funding is not provided alongside the new restrictions, then real people - families, children and pensioners, who would otherwise have got access to this scheme if the rules remained the same, will be denied access to it this year and will be at greater risk of homelessness.

I appreciate that the Minister is new to the job. I appreciate that he has a huge learning curve to meet and that he is listening to many different views on this. However, I urge him not just to listen to his officials but to talk to the front-line homeless service providers in local authorities and read carefully the letters that, I understand, he has been sent by some of our leading homeless charities. They are telling him that if he does not, at a minimum, provide the same level of funding this year as last year, specifically for the tenant in situ scheme, local authorities will run out of funding before the year-end. If the Minister allows the specific restrictions that we have listed in our motion to make their way into the circular that he will sign, fewer homes will be bought and more people will be at risk of homelessness. This is one of the first big decisions that Deputy Browne is going to have to make as Minister and it is going to say a lot about the trajectory of travel in his tenure over the time ahead. There are occasions when we will have political rows across the Chamber but this is one where we are telling him that a decision of the Government two years ago was the right one. The scheme is working and we are urging the Minister, as are front-line service providers in local authorities and homeless charities, not to make the wrong decision.

Here is the thing. If he makes the wrong decision, and if people who would otherwise have been prevented from going into homelessness end up in emergency accommodation because of his decision, that is on him. Everything else we talk about at this point is the responsibility of his predecessors. The Minister, and he alone, will ultimately make the decision. Despite the fact that the wording of his amendment is deeply disappointing, I urge him to take time to reflect before he signs off on that circular. He should listen to the people on the front line, who we trust to tackle the issue of homelessness, and listen to his own backbenchers, who know this scheme is working. He should ensure, hopefully as a matter of urgency, that when he makes the final decision on capital allocation and signs off on that final circular, our local authorities have the money and the flexibility to ensure no household, family, single person or couple without children will be forced into homelessness because of a bad decision by the Minister and his colleagues. He can do the right thing but it is not in his amendment. I urge him to reconsider.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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A total of 17 applications under the tenant in situ scheme have been suspended in Waterford. This involves 17 families grappling with significant uncertainty and anxiety not knowing if they will have a roof over their heads this year. That sorry story is replicated in the hundreds all across the State.

The moves by Government to reduce funding and restrict the tenant in situ scheme will lead to children, women and men becoming homeless right across the State. Some 15,280 people are availing of State-provided emergency accommodation, which is a 13% increase on last year, and this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the real homeless figures. The Government seems to be hell-bent on sending still more of our people into homelessness by restricting this scheme. Every week in Dungarvan and in my clinics around County Waterford, I meet families and individuals who have been served with a notice to quit. The only solace they have - indeed the only thing between them and homelessness - has been the tenant in situ scheme. When Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil shamelessly lifted the no-fault eviction ban in 2023, the story spun was that the tenant in situ scheme would ensure nobody became homeless as a result. While the scheme on its own could never hope to mitigate the abject failure of the Government's housing policy - remember homelessness increased by 15% in 2023 - it did offer protection to many vulnerable families facing eviction through no fault of their own.

We know the scheme can work when it is allowed to. Arguably, it is one of the few schemes instituted by the Government that has actually worked yet it has been paused for months and will be restricted and potentially wound down. Will the Minister change course from this disastrous approach, fully fund the tenant in situ scheme for 2025 and give local authorities the resources and maximum flexibility to operate it?

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Homeless accommodation in Galway city and county is full. This means that at least two councils cannot provide accommodation in cases of emergency. At the same time, if somebody is trying to get a HAP property in Galway city or county, it is nearly to impossible to find one. If somebody in Galway city or county gets an eviction notice, what is the option available to him or her? He or she can hope that he or she can get something under the tenant in situ scheme, which is something that has worked in Galway city and county. However, significant numbers of people are now in limbo.

I was contacted by a woman tonight who wrote to me about her case. I will read it out because it shows the pressure she is under. She states:

Mairéad a chara, I am contacting you directly as I am under huge pressure to ascertain where the application under the tenant in situ scheme stands for the purchase of the property I'm renting. My landlord has made an application to sell the property under the tenant in situ scheme for some time and is being frustrated by the lack of progress and has decided to put the house up for sale on the open market. My notice of termination expired in early January and I am fearful that the house will be sold in the very near future. I understand that there was an issue with the council receiving its budget allocation for 2025 but I hope that this has been resolved at this stage. If the house is not purchased under this scheme, it will be an incredible pity as the house would be a very good investment especially in such a rural area. On a personal level, this is absolutely devastating for myself and my young son as we are facing homelessness.

There is nowhere for people in Galway city and county to go because the authorities there do not have the necessary emergency accommodation and rental properties. In this very rural area, which is part of Connemara, there is literally nowhere to go. There are concerns about the memo that was sent out in terms of the amount of funding that would be there and the particular restrictions. I urge the Minister to consider all of this - consider what this woman is saying - when he makes his decision.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I do not expect this Government to tell the truth about anything relating to housing in light of the Taoiseach's repeated refusal to confirm or deny that the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform deliberately misled the Irish people during the general election, but here are some truths. Since April 2023, 2,500 households have been prevented from becoming homeless because of the scheme. A total of 16,546 notices of termination were issued to private residential tenants last year. More than half of them were on the grounds of landlords intending to sell the property. The number of people independent of housing funded emergency homeless accommodation increased by 13% in the past year to 15,286, including over 4,500 children. I was shocked late last year when I started to get emails and messages from people regarding the length of time it was taking or the fact that local authorities were not approving any new tenant in situ applications. This left people puzzled. I contacted the housing department in Fingal County Council, which confirmed that it could not proceed with any more because the Government had not given it the figures. It left hundreds of people - families and individuals - without a decision due to a lack of funding.

This is the result of the Government's failure to give the targets and funding and is putting larger numbers of people at risk of homelessness. Landlords are getting frustrated. These are people who want to sell their homes to the local authority. They want to sell them and are disengaging from the scheme. Let us make it simple. We need to ensure that local authorities have the maximum level of funding and the necessary targets to be able to operate the tenant in situ scheme, provide them with flexibility to operate the scheme and reject the new restrictions that are being proposed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I wish the Minister well in his new role. The tenant in situ scheme has been hugely successful in preventing hundreds of families in Cork from becoming homeless. This scheme has allowed Cork County Council to buy up properties for tenants who face a no-fault eviction notice allowing the family to remain in the property as council tenants. This scheme is working and should be expanded to ensure the maximum number of tenants at risk of eviction and homelessness can avail of it. Instead of increasing this vital protector for renters with eviction notices, the Minister has reduced funding and cut targets for this scheme. He has also imposed a series of new restrictions on the operation of the scheme. For example, under the new rules, single people and couples without children will be excluded. This in itself is deeply concerning. This new rule not only disregards the realities many face in our society but also maintains unfairness in a system that should be about providing housing stability for all who need it regardless of their circumstances. Single people and couples without children are just as vulnerable to housing instability as families with children. With the exclusion of these groups, the Minister is telling many people that they are less deserving of having a stable home simply because they do not fit a certain family model. This is not just an unfair distinction, it is a deeply discriminatory one.

A case that has been covered on RedFM and in local newspapers involves a 33-year-old man named Jonathan who lives in a caravan in Cobh. He was staying at his sister's place and had to move to a car park. The council is pushing him on again. He works two jobs and cannot get on the housing list because he does not have an address. He was told to use his sister's address. This means her rent will go up so the system is very unfair. I want to put that on the record because there are many other people like this.

I will finish by saying housing should be a right and not a privilege determined by the size of one's family. The restrictions on the tenant in situ scheme need to be reversed to ensure that everyone - single or couple, parent or not - has access to a secure stable home.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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For the past decade, with the exception of the period when Covid measures were in place, the number of people accessing emergency accommodation has been rising. There are 46 properties to rent in the entirety of my constituency, which is two counties, namely Longford and Westmeath. A very basic two-bedroom property is now well over €1,000 per month and an actual shed is €270 per week. The Department's homeless report showed that from January 2024 to January 2025 there has been a 17% increase in adults accessing emergency accommodation in Westmeath. The figure in Longford has remained static. This is cold comfort to the couple yesterday who were refused bed and breakfast vouchers for themselves and their four-month-old baby and who had literally no idea where they were to spend the night. The emerging trend of parents with young children seeking emergency accommodation being threatened with referrals to Tusla is nothing less than repugnant. These parents are incredibly aware of the difficult position they are in - they are literally living it - yet the tenant in situ scheme, which has prevented some 2,500 households from becoming homeless has been in turmoil and there are hundreds of applications left in limbo. Any effort to restrict this scheme will put greater numbers of people at risk of homelessness and disincentivise landlords from engaging.

Sinn Féin fully supports the tenant in situ scheme. Our alternative housing plan proposed funding 2,000 acquisitions in 2025 and 6,500 in total over five years. We want this scheme to continue and we want it to continue with the current rules with no new restrictions and the same levels of funding because the Minister has an obligation to protect those vulnerable families that are so desperately in need of long-term secure homes.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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The housing and homelessness crisis has been getting worse under successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, so this decision to further restrict the tenant in situ scheme, which has prevented so many people from becoming homeless, is bizarre.

On top of these new restrictions, we also have delays on applications going back months because the Government could not get its act together and agree new funding levels and targets for 2025.

I will give an example of what these delays mean. A mother in my constituency with two children who has been living in a home for ten years has been waiting since last August to find out if they are going to have to leave their home, the only home those children have known. This woman's landlord was happy to go down the tenant in situ route, but because of the delays in funding for her application with Fingal County Council, it has now been put on pause for six months, leaving this family in limbo, which is not good enough.

Now the Government is restricting who can apply. Single people and couples without children will not be able to avail of it. It also appears that these changes will mean that local authorities will not be able to refurbish homes they buy under this scheme. This reads like an attempt to do away with the scheme by making it totally unworkable. However, this scheme has been proven to work. In the last two years it has prevented 2,500 households from becoming homeless. We in Sinn Féin have made a proposal for funding of the scheme to allow for 6,500 homes to be purchased in a five-year term. We want to continue to work under the current rules and we want to make sure that local authorities have the staff to process the applications.

I ask all TDs in this House to vote for the motion and give local authorities the funding and the flexibility to operate this scheme. This scheme would prevent other families going into homelessness. Please support this motion.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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The changes the Minister announced to the tenant in situ scheme will make more people in Limerick homeless. The changes announced by the Minister are a mistake and should be rowed back as a matter of urgency. The scheme as it stood was working and stopped thousands from becoming homeless. It should have been expanded. It should have been further funded. It is one of the simplest ways to deliver homes for working people. Instead, the Minister has reduced funding and cut the scheme’s targets. The restrictive and punitive new rules exclude those who have no children and they also exclude single people. Perhaps most ridiculously, councils with no money for refurbishment of properties cannot now reclaim refurbishment costs from the Department.

The limited funding combined with additional restrictions make increased homelessness in Limerick inevitable. Limerick City and County Council held a webinar with councillors last week about the impact of these changes and regarding the current state of play of housing support in Limerick, and the situation is very bleak. Across Limerick,107 acquisitions are on hold from last year and with a capital funding allocation for second-hand acquisitions at around €6 million, it is estimated that only 20 to 22 of these will proceed. That means is there is no capacity to purchase any future properties where notice-to-quit orders have been issued. It means 85 households whose inhabitants will become homeless. This excludes any notice-to-quit orders from this year. On top of this, no refurbishment costs have been assigned to acquisitions so any property purchased in a condition short of turnkey ready cannot be prepared for use for those in need of housing.

When the Government was formed there was a lot of rhetoric about getting to grips with the housing crisis and it looks like it is falling at the very first hurdle. After five years of failing to meet targets, of ever-increasing homelessness, of a general election where the actual targets were hidden and the public deceived, one might have hoped a new Minister would have brought a new approach - an approach that keeps people out of homelessness. Alas, it is a case of here we go again. Here we go again with more homelessness. Here we go again with sky-high rents and house costs. Here we go again with restrictions imposed on those most desperate for housing, those who cannot afford to purchase their home.

The Minister would be best served to take note of the opposition to these changes. He should increase the capital allocation for 2025 not reduce it compared with 2024, allow refurbishment costs, end the arbitrary two-year housing support rule and stop excluding single people and couples without children from the scheme. The Minister says he is committed to ending homelessness yet takes actions that will only serve to increase the already high numbers of people without a home.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

notes that:

— increasing the overall housing supply is key to addressing the housing challenge and preventing and ultimately eliminating long-term homelessness, and the clear focus of Government must therefore remain on increasing the supply of new build social and affordable homes;

— notwithstanding, a targeted second-hand social housing acquisition programme has been and will continue to be an important policy response to priority needs such as tenancy sustainment, exits from homelessness, support for elderly and disabled persons and tackling vacancy;

— the Government formally introduced Tenant in-Situ acquisitions in 2023, as a temporary response to the reported uplift in sales by landlords of homes which were within the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) schemes in order to prevent potential homelessness where other solutions could not be found for the affected tenants;

— the Government extended such acquisitions into 2024, and now 2025, and has repeatedly increased the funding available over and above that set out in Housing for All; and

— the Residential Tenancies Board received 16,546 Notices of Termination in 2024, and this was down 13 per cent in 2023, 9,170 of these were issued as a result of landlord intent to sell the property, and this was down 20.7 per cent in 2023;

further notes that:

— the social housing Second Hand Acquisitions (SHA) programme or tenant in-situ acquisitions were not suspended, and the Programme for Government – Securing Ireland's Future commits to continuing Social Housing Tenant in-Situ acquisitions;

— the Government has agreed to continue the programme in 2025, with funding of €325 million being provided, and this funding will provide for the acquisition of second-hand homes for the following priority needs:

— Tenant in-Situ acquisitions;

— older persons and persons with a disability;

— exits from homeless services; and

— Buy and Renew acquisitions, which tackle vacancy;

— prioritising vulnerable households for support under the second-hand acquisitions programme is important, but it does not mean excluding others. It will be a matter for local authorities to respond to local needs and single persons and couples can be supported;

— under revised arrangements for second-hand acquisitions in 2025, local authorities will receive a capital funding allocation for the acquisition of second-hand dwellings;

— individual local authority capital funding allocations will help promote best practice in obtaining value for money and provide local authorities with the flexibility to respond to needs and priorities locally within the categories of need being prioritised, and a circular will issue to local authorities imminently outlining their capital allocations for 2025;

— funding is available to AHBs to acquire second-hand homes under the programme on the same 100 per cent grant funded basis as that available to local authorities, and funding for AHBs will be provided under the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) which reflects the priority needs being targeted;

— the introduction of eligibility criteria and priority needs for acquisitions, including Tenant in-Situ, will allow for a more targeted programme of acquisitions and enable local authorities to acquire the maximum number of homes for such needs;

— refurbishment funding will not be available under the SHA programme for Tenant in-Situ acquisitions, as such properties are the beneficiaries of significant Exchequer funded rent supports every week, are legally required to meet the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019, and are subject to inspection by local authorities to ensure they meet the said standards, and immediate essential repairs should not therefore be required;

— some refurbishment works may be required in the short- to medium-term, but these should be noted as part of the condition survey and programmed for future planned maintenance works such that the capital funding available for Tenant in-Situ acquisitions is dedicated to maximising the number of acquisitions, and funding works which are not immediately required would prevent the number of acquisitions being maximised;

— there are a number of funding programmes available for local authorities to improve their social housing stock, including the Planned Maintenance programme, the Disabled Persons Grant, the Regeneration Projects and Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme; and

— refurbishment funding is available for acquisitions under exits from homelessness, older and disabled persons and Buy and Renew, where works are required to ensure the property meets the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019, or adaptation requirements to accommodate the tenant; and

highlights:

— the success of the SHA programme to date:

— almost 7,000 second-hand homes have been acquired since 2020, at a capital cost of circa €2 billion; and

— in the period 2023 to Q3 2024, just over 3,100 second-hand acquisitions have been completed of which 2,000 have been Tenant in-Situ acquisitions;

— the Government is committed to continuing with a targeted SHA programme which will prioritise the most vulnerable households within the priority areas being supported, but will not act to exclude persons or households; and

— in implementing the programme, local authorities are being asked to, and are being given the flexibility to, respond to local needs, and single persons and couples can be supported.

I very much welcome this motion. In the last few weeks we have heard calls from Opposition and Government backbenchers to continue the tenant in situ scheme to ensure it is in place and provide clarity on it. That is exactly what we are doing today in that we are continuing the tenant in situ scheme. We are doing it because of the reasons the Deputies opposite have outlined. More than 2,000 families have avoided homelessness because of the scheme. I very much welcome that and it has been a success. That is why we are continuing it with guardrails. We are still giving significant amounts of money to local authorities to acquire homes for those who are at risk of homelessness. However, there must be some guardrails in place.

I have heard reference to restrictions and I have heard on many occasions that single people will be excluded. That is not the case. We are giving flexibility, but there will be prioritisation criteria. When dealing with the figures and the sums of money we are talking about which are necessary to ensure that people avoid homelessness, we need to have those guardrails in place to ensure that it is done properly. The upshot and something that has been sought by both Government and Opposition is clarity on this. The clarity is that the tenant in situ scheme will be continuing.

I welcome the opportunity to speak here today to oppose the motion on behalf of Government and to outline the progress made to date with the second-hand social housing acquisitions and specifically tenant in situ acquisitions and make clear that the concerns raised are, in fact, already being addressed.

The clear focus of Government is to increase the supply of new-build social and affordable homes. Increasing the overall housing supply is key to addressing the housing challenge and in particular preventing and ultimately eliminating long-term homelessness. Notwithstanding this, Government has supported and will continue to support a targeted second-hand social housing acquisitions programme which responds to the needs of the most vulnerable. Government has therefore increased the 2025 budget for the second-hand social housing acquisitions programme from the €60 million available under housing for all to €325 million and is giving local authorities the flexibility required within the programme to respond to needs locally.

Tenant in situ acquisitions are recognised as a key measure in the prevention of homelessness. The scheme positively benefits vulnerable tenants who receive a notice of termination from their landlord. I want to reassert the Government’s commitment to the continuation of a more focused and targeted programme to ensure it benefits those most in need.

Housing for All makes provision for 200 social housing acquisitions per annum to 2030. In light of the challenges in addressing homelessness and the reported uplift in the number of landlords exiting the private rental market and HAP and RAS schemes, Government introduced tenant in situ acquisitions in 2023 as a temporary short-term measure to address the issue. This was continued in 2024 and has now been extended into 2025. Since the introduction of the tenant in situ programme in March 2023, more than 3,100 second hand homes have been purchased with approximately 2,000 of those being tenant in situ acquisitions.

It is worth nothing that the Residential Tenancies Board received 16,546 notices of termination in 2024. This was down 13% on 2023. A total of 9,170 of these were issued as a result of landlord intent to sell the property. This was down 20.7% on 2023.

The continuation of tenant in situ acquisitions into 2025 is a clear indication of Government's commitment to preventing homelessness for HAP and RAS tenants who have been served a no-fault notice of termination.

To ensure the most vulnerable cohorts are protected, eligibility criteria are being introduced. These criteria will ensure that priority categories of need such as tenants in situ, older persons, people with disabilities and people exiting homelessness can benefit in a fair and equitable manner from the programme. These criteria include priority for those most at risk, such as families with children, people with disabilities and older or vulnerable persons. It is important to note that the addition of these criteria does not exclude any tenant from the scheme but rather they provide focus for those most in need.

Local authorities are being provided with increased flexibility to respond to local needs and priorities through the allocation of capital funding. This allocation will enable local authorities to assess all available options and to decide on the most appropriate actions in each case. As such, local authorities can identify suitable acquisitions in line with the local circumstances. Since the Minister obtained approval from Government for additional funding this month, officials in my Department have engaged with the local authorities to ensure that these measures are communicated quickly and clearly to staff in local authorities. This will be following very shortly with a circular outlining funding allocations for 2025. In calculating the funding allocations and to ensure each local authority is adequately supported, metrics such as spend and delivery in previous years, the summary of social housing assessments and the number and spatial distribution of HAP and RAS tenancies have been taken into account. The Minister has asked that funding be used optimally to support the maximum number of affected tenants. The Minister has also requested that local authorities be proactive in acquiring properties for priority categories already mentioned, and buy and renew acquisitions which tackle vacancy.

To build on the progress to date, a full review of tenant in situ acquisitions will be undertaken this year. This review will assess the effectiveness of the programme and put forward recommendations on how the second-hand acquisitions programme can, notwithstanding the emphasis on additional supply through new build, become a permanent and targeted policy response for those most in need for whom there are no other options. The targeting of tenant in situ acquisitions in 2025 will provide increased clarity and equity to the programme ensuring those who are most at risk are protected.

Refurbishment funding will not be available under the second-hand acquisitions programme for tenant in situ acquisitions. Such properties are the beneficiaries of significant Exchequer funded rent supports every week, are legally required to meet the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 and are subject to inspection by local authorities to ensure they meet those standards. Immediate essential repairs, therefore, should not be required. Some refurbishment works may be required in the short to medium term but these should be noted as part of the condition survey and programmed for future planned maintenance works such that the capital funding available for tenant in situ acquisitions is dedicated to maximising the number of acquisitions. Funding for works that are not immediately required would prevent the number of acquisitions being maximised.

There are a number of funding programmes available for local authorities to improve their social housing stock including the planned maintenance programme, the disabled persons grant, the regeneration programme, and the energy efficiency retrofit programme. Refurbishment funding is available for acquisitions under exits from homelessness, older and disabled persons, and buy and renew, where works are required to ensure the property meets the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 or for adaptation requirements to accommodate the tenant.

This Government is dedicated to addressing the housing crisis and is committed to the continuation of the second-hand social housing acquisitions programme for priority needs and, in particular, tenant in situ acquisitions, which can be an important measure in preventing homelessness. This commitment has been demonstrated by the provision of increased funding and the improved arrangements for 2025.

In opposing the motion, the Government highlights the success of the programme to date, namely the fact that almost 7,000 second hand-homes have been acquired since 2020 and in the period 2023 to the third quarter of 2024, more than 3,100 second-hand acquisitions have been completed. Of the latter, 2,000 were through the tenant in situ scheme. The Government is committed to continuing with a targeted second-hand acquisitions programme, which will prioritise the most vulnerable households within the priority areas being supported but which will not act to exclude persons or households. In implementing the programme, local authorities are being asked to and are being given the flexibility to respond to local needs, and single persons and couples can be supported.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister and Minister of State should go back and read the Act because I do not believe they have any understanding of what they are looking to do and what we are looking to do. We are looking to protect one of the few things that the previous Minister, Deputy O'Brien, did when he was in office by listening to all the Opposition parties when we put forward a tenant in situ scheme as a way of preventing homelessness. I will put an idea to the Minister of State. As a Corkman, he should understand this. There were 1,874 families and individuals given notices to quit in 2024. Cork City Council purchased 79 homes under the tenant in situ scheme, which prevented 79 families becoming homeless and going into emergency accommodation. There is something else the Minister of State might understand as a Corkman. Right now, a couple can get €877.50 on HAP. Does the Minister of State know how many properties in Cork are listed on Daft.ie today to rent for that amount of money? How many? The answer to that questions is none. The Minister of State talked about making changes to one of the few things that the Government got to work. Does he realise the cruelty his Government is inflicting on people now? It will drive families and people into both homelessness and emergency accommodation.

Cork City Council has overachieved. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs come in here criticising local authorities. We have a local authority that is doing it right, beating the targets and getting more people in. What is the Government going to do? It is going to limit the numbers. The decision to row back on this is a disgrace. The first thing the Minister is going to do will be to increase the level of homelessness. The Government brought in a scheme a number of years ago to ban evictions. The question must be asked about the banning of evictions and the getting rid of the tenant in situ scheme: who got to the Ministers and who got to the Government?

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I wish the Minister well in his post . I commend my colleagues on bringing forward this motion. The tenant in situ scheme, as many have said, worked very well for many people who were under serious pressure. Since last summer, however, we have seen decline. Now, it has ground to a halt. Many people in my constituency have been affected. I am aware of the case of a young woman who has four children. She is a nurse. Due to the fact that her children are small, she cannot go to work. Her husband works in the fire brigade in our town. They are living in a rented house and have received a notice to quit, which is valid. They are going to have to leave the house. They can find nowhere else to go. The tenant in situ scheme is the only option they have. Up to now, they have been told that it is not open and that there is nothing for them. I respect that the Minister of State was talking about a circular coming out. Why is that taking so long? Where is it? Where is the sense of urgency to deliver for people? Why have local authorities not been clear? The Minister of State indicated that the Government will bring clarity. What is it taking so long to provide clarity? Why delay and delay? Why can we not have it now? Why can people not know where they stand? Why can local authorities not know how much money they will have in order that they can purchase houses and take people out of their misery?

What is happening is hugely stressful. Dozens of people across my constituency are affected. I live in a rural area that does not have the same housing pressures as many of our urban areas. I know of dozens of cases where people have received notices to quit and where the local authority is prepared to buy the houses involved. However, they have not had from the Minister the clarity that might allow them to do so.

This is what we need to do. The Minister needs to support the motion. The Minister of State moved an amendment to the motion. On the basis of what usually happens, this means the Government, in some backhanded way, is going to oppose the motion and go off and do its own thing anyway. What the Government has done up to now has been a failure. I ask that the Minister does not continue with that failure. He is new to the position. I ask him to start as he means to go on and show that he is about something different that will deliver for the people who need delivery. Too many people are in too much stress, and this Government is letting them down.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The number of adults accessing emergency accommodation across the north-east region that comprises Louth, Cavan and Monaghan in a single week in January was 263. That is an increase of nearly one third on the same period last year. The number of children involved was 130, a near 70% increase year on year. What can the Government do?

The tenant in situ scheme is one mechanism that provides a vital protection for ordinary renters from having to face into the cruel and unyielding reality of a local rental market that simply does not have the stock to adequately meet demand let alone do so at a reasonable price. By facilitating local authorities in purchasing homes, not only does the scheme provide security of tenure for renters while increasing rental stock in general, it also prevents people from joining the growing list of those accessing already overstretched emergency accommodation services. The value of this scheme is that it has prevented more than 2,500 people from entering homelessness since April 2023. The Minister will face a significant test in the coming days.

Will he adequately fund this scheme for 2025 while reducing undue restrictions, or will he underutilise this crucial renters' protection against homelessness or even allow it to wither away? I commend my party colleague and Sinn Féin spokesperson on housing, Deputy Ó Broin, on bringing forward this motion to mandate the Government to ensure that local councils have the maximum funding available to operate this scheme and to reject undue restrictions that will serve only to exclude those who could benefit from this vital support.

As the housing crisis worsens year on year due to failed Government policy, I appeal to every Deputy in this Chamber to absolutely reject proposals that would see the deprioritisation of single people and couples without children from accessing this scheme. I urge every Deputy, and the Minister, to endorse this motion.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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It does not make any sense but the Government seems to take every opportunity to make the housing crisis even worse. We have heard during the debate about the number of people, some 2,500 households, who were saved from homelessness. Families with children, couples and single people, including pensioners, have been prevented from enduring long stays in emergency accommodation because councils were able to buy their private homes. We know the scheme works. The question for the Minister is why he has not signed off on the scheme and why councils are waiting for an answer from his Department.

I was dealing earlier with a case of a family whose landlord is going out to the market tomorrow, having already got in a valuer. The house has gone up by €30,000 in value since it went into this scheme. The landlord will say he is giving all the information and the local authority will say it has all the information, but it has not been able to sign off on the scheme. There are problems with the scheme but it is a lifeline for ordinary families. We are asking that the Minister throw out that lifeline, give certainty to the market and resolve this outstanding issue.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Tacaím leis an scéim tithíochta sóisialta do thionóntaí ar an láthair. Is scéim é a bhí ann go dtí seo - measaim gur chóir leanúint léi - chun déileáil leo siúd atá ar an liosta tithíochta sóisialta cheana féin agus atá faoi bhagairt go mbeidh siad gan dídean amach anseo. Níl ann ach píosa amháin de na céimeanna ar gá dóibh a bheith ann chun déileáil leis an ngéarchéim thithíochta agus a ligeann do chlanna seasmhacht a bheith acu ina saol seachas bata agus bóthar a bheith tugtha dóibh. I gcás a lán díobh siúd atá ag lorg tacaíochta óna leithéid de scéim, bíonn siad sna tithe ar feadh tréimhse cuibheasach fada agus bíonn siad ceangailte leis an gceantar ina bhfuil siad ag iarraidh fanacht. Others have spoken about the need to address this to ensure that there is less homelessness, but there is also a need for quicker decision-making. I listened to what the Minister of State said about the lack of refurbishment funding in this. That is absolutely ridiculous, given the situations in which many of these families find themselves. Many of these homes are not visited by local authorities because over the years, housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, have not been adequately addressed, yet these people are expected to stay in that accommodation.

I have one case of a 29-year-old with two autistic children who is paying privately for therapy because, once again, the State has failed her. Seven years into a HAP payment, however, no assessment has ever been done on her property. That is bad, but it is going to be even worse if those two children are put into homeless accommodation for God knows how long, given the state of the homelessness list in this city. This is one scheme that can work. A landlord is willing to engage but is being forced to look at the private market because of the delays in the Minister making an announcement on this scheme and in the local authorities addressing the problems. There is also the fact the local authorities are saying they will not move because of adaptations such as attic conversions. The Government is talking about allowing sheds in back gardens but will not allow people to live in a home they have been in for seven years.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Iarraim ar pháirtí an Lucht Oibre labhairt anois agus beidh 15 bomaite aige ag tosú leis an Teachta Sheehan.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas, ar dtús báire, a ghabháil le Páirtí Shinn Féin as an rún seo a thabhairt faoi bhráid na Dála. Molaim agus molann Páirtí an Lucht Oibre an rún seo.

The Government's announcement on the tenant in situ scheme leaves more questions than answers. This is a vital scheme to stop even more people ending up in homelessness. The cynical move to put a de facto end to this scheme, by restricting it so much as to make it effectively unworkable, is an absolute disgrace and is not fooling anybody. The fact is that people who are facing no-fault evictions are simply not high on the priority list of this Government. This has been confirmed in a circular issued to local authorities, which states that the purchase price and associated fees, such as valuation, legal etc., will only be recouped to local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, and must be within acquisition cost guidelines. This means that no refurbishment costs can be claimed on the scheme and that only legal and valuation fees can. This excludes large swathes of people in the private rental market who live in poor quality housing due to no fault of their own. AHBs and homelessness organisations have written to the Minister on this and said clearly that access to funding for refurbishments was a barrier, in fact, to the success of this scheme, which was reasonably successful and was one of the few wins the previous Government had when it lifted the no-fault eviction ban.

It is now the third week in March. We are effectively one quarter of the way through the year and local authorities still do not have a unit allocation for the tenant in situ scheme. It has been in purgatory since the general election, with my local authority having more than 100 applications hanging at the end of last year. It has told me that under this revised scheme, it will be lucky if it is able to complete 20 this year.

On the changes to the scheme, I do not for the life of me understand why the Minister is excluding single people. What have they done to deserve this? Single people are the biggest group on the social housing list who are not really moving. There is a chronic shortage of one-bedroom units and this will make the situation even worse. Neither do I understand why the sins of the landlord are being put on the heads of tenants by making landlords who are not registered with the Residential Tendencies Board, RTB, ineligible for this scheme. The position of tenants in the private rental sector is one of the most precarious in the context of housing in this country. Many of them are terrified of their landlords and of getting a notice to quit, and the idea they could make their landlord register with the RTB is farcical. In fact, there is nothing to be gained by any landlord from selling their property to the local authority as opposed to putting it on the private market, given the shortage of housing and how much house prices have risen in recent years. I cannot understand why the Government is making it even harder for landlords to do what is right for the common good by making this scheme even harder to access. Instead of discouraging the tenant in situ scheme, we should be encouraging it by offering landlords some form of tax relief to sell their properties to the council with tenants in situ.

Since these changes were announced, I have been inundated with contact from several concerned approved housing bodies and housing initiatives. They tell me the tenant in situ scheme has proved very effective in preventing homelessness among hundreds of households since its introduction. They say it has been a safety net for people who have been issued with a no-fault eviction notice by their landlord and has successfully prevented homelessness, keeping families in their homes and adding social housing stock to local authorities and approved housing bodies. NOVAS in my city of Limerick has been very active in procuring properties in collaboration with local authorities through this scheme and is very anxious to continue to prevent homelessness in this manner. It is concerned the newly proposed restrictions will severely limit the impact of the scheme, forcing more households into homelessness for protracted periods with few exit pathways.

We know now that more families than ever are living in commercial hotels and hubs for far longer than the recommended six-month period. This type of provision is extremely expensive for the State and can have detrimental impacts on the physical, social and emotional well-being of family members. During his tenure, the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, said targets were considered the minimum attainment for each local authority so that if opportunities arose to prevent homelessness through the scheme, local authorities and approved housing bodies could do so. Now, the Minister has effectively blown a massive, gaping hole in that.

We urge the Minister to reconsider these restrictions on tenant in situ, which we believe will have unintended adverse consequences for vulnerable households throughout the country, increasing homelessness at a time when the system is creaking at the seams. Rather than imposing restrictions, this scheme should be extended. It would be easier for all of us if the Government were honest with people instead of trying to spin this by stating it will still protect the most vulnerable. That is simply untrue. It is very clear that the Department of public expenditure does not like this scheme - it is expensive - and the Department of housing has been told to take a scissors to it. It would be better for all of us if the Government were honest about that.

In the time available to me, I will tell the House about one of the many people I am dealing with who do not know what they are going to do or where they are going to go after their notice to quit expires. I am dealing with a woman called Ciara who has given me permission to tell her story. In January 2024, she was initially told that her landlord wanted to sell the home she was living in. She was going through the tenant in situ process for almost the entirety of last year. However, the application was closed out on 18 December because there was no allocation for 2025. We now know the allocation that is coming for 2025 will not even cover the necessary refurbishment work that needs to be done in the home Ciara has lived in for over a decade. This home is now going on the open market. She and her partner have been on the housing list for a decade now. She told me they are now coming up to the last three months they will spend in a home that their seven-year-old son only knows as his home. They have begged the council to buy it. They are desperate and willing to try anything. I do not know what to tell Ciara and others like her whom I am dealing with at the moment. I do not know what answers or what hope they have.

There is no advantage for landlords to sell to the local authorities. If we are honest, people will get much more if they put a home on the private market. It is almost as if the Government thinks landlords are trying to sell to the State in order to cash in; that is simply untrue. The changes have turned this scheme from a safety net to stop people going into homelessness to a scheme of last resort. Government policy has now changed in that it actively wants and favours vacant possession and sale on the open market. This is a distinct policy shift away from preventing homelessness. It is absolutely shameful, at a time when homelessness has never been so high, private rents have never been so high and people have never been in such a precarious situation, to do this now.

This scheme should have been extended and expanded. Instead, it is being completely filleted. It is unworkable. Local authorities will be lucky this year if they are able to do a fraction of the small number of tenant in situ purchases they completed last year. For the Minister to claim he is protecting vulnerable people in the private rented market is fundamentally dishonest.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
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I will continue from where my colleague, Deputy Sheehan, left off. What the Government intends to do if it implements all the recommendations from the Department of housing is turn a scheme, albeit an imperfect one, that was keeping people out of homelessness into a zombie scheme. It will be a scheme that exists in name but that is not practical and does not help people stay out of homelessness. The plans afoot for the tenant in situ scheme are disgraceful. The scheme, as it has existed for the last number of years, is a function of a dysfunctional market. It would not exist if we had a housing system that functioned but we do not.

Unfortunately, we needed a tenant in situ scheme to keep families, single people and couples without children out of homelessness. Unfortunately, if the Government continues with what the Department recommends, it will ensure that many more people enter homelessness. The last visitor to my clinic at the weekend was a single divorced woman in her early 60s who recently availed of the invalidity pension as she just had to give up work. Her tenant in situ application was rejected by the council due to a lack of funding. The woman, who has a disability, will end up in homeless accommodation when she had a landlord who was willing to sell to the council. The landlord had a good relationship with thee tenant and wanted her to stay in the home but was unable to pursue that option because of the Government's disgraceful decision to stop the funding in December. It is an absolute disgrace that it has now presented this filleted, zombie scheme. Even at its most basic, the tenant in situ scheme allowed more time for the local authority's housing allocation or homelessness department to find suitable accommodation because even when an application failed, it took a few months to process it. It was not always the case but sometimes the engagement by the landlord and local authority with the scheme would give the tenant an extra couple of months. Now, that is gone. The ever decreasing number of levers available to Deputies, Citizens Information and tenants themselves to stay out of homelessness are being removed one by one by this Government. The Government is failing to meet its housing targets and to deliver the number of houses needed, whether they have one, two, three, four or more bedrooms or are disability friendly. It is missing every single target. This one imperfect scheme, which managed to keep a few people in their homes and managed to extend people's time before entering homelessness and give local authorities more time, is now being removed. It is a callous decision by the Government.

I commend Sinn Féin on bringing this motion forward. The vast majority of people do not know what the tenant in situ scheme is. It is a niche scheme which people will not know about until they are actually faced with the worst possible vista, namely, a descent into homelessness. It is very welcome that the motion has been brought forward tonight. It deserves every airing and every bit of attention it gets.

Again, is a really callous move by the Government. It should do what the motion says by ensuring local authorities have certainty and funding and are able to apply maximum discretion. We have good local authority housing officers who will, when they have some housing stock and some timelines, buy a two-bedroom house in which a family that may need a three-bedroom house is living just to keep them in it so they can later transfer to a three-bedroom house. They will then move someone else into the two-bedroom house. This is what housing officers can do if they are given the resources to do it. This Government, like the previous one which was the same Government, is removing, one by one, the levers and possibilities that would keep people in their homes. It is callous and it should be reversed.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this timely and vital motion. It is deeply disappointing to see that the Government is not supporting it and has put forward an amendment that will take away from the point of the motion.

I am deeply annoyed and frustrated by this Government's failure to act on homelessness and to treat it like an emergency. A home is one of the most fundamental needs that people have, yet clearly the Government does not understand the true value of a home. If it did, it would not be bringing a wrecking ball to the tenant in situ scheme, which was working to prevent people losing their home, or sabotaging one of the few policies that do something to alleviate homelessness.

Shamefully, the Government is pulling the small rug that was available to tenants out from under their feet. When the eviction ban, a measure that was preventing homelessness as well, was lifted in March 2023, I described it as one of the cruellest decisions ever taken by an Irish Government, and it was. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael made the decision knowing that it would result in people being made homeless. Now it is making another decision that it knows will make people homeless. Where is the evidence that backs up restricting the tenant in situ scheme? The Government has not provided it, just as it did not provide evidence to back up the lifting of the eviction ban. It is another Government policy based not on evidence but on a lack of care, a lack of interest in dealing with homelessness and a lack of concern for some of our most vulnerable people in this society. I cannot get my head around it. I said shame on Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael then; I say shame on them again today. It is a bloody disgrace that the eviction ban was lifted and it is a bloody disgrace that the Government is now bringing a wrecking ball to the tenant in situ scheme. When the eviction ban was lifted, the Government said the tenant in situ scheme was the protection, the safety net, that was in place to prevent renters from being made homeless. Yet now the Government is rolling back and removing that promise and commitment to renters.

This is an emergency, a social disaster, yet this Government continues to fail to treat the housing crisis like the emergency it is. The wrecking ball it is bringing to tenant in situ is one more example. Some 30,000 households have been evicted since the eviction ban was lifted in March 2023, with 14,000 in the last three quarters of 2023 and 16,000 last year. That is an emergency. They are famine-scale evictions. Some 85% of them were no-fault evictions; the tenant did nothing wrong. In 61% of cases the landlord stated they were selling up. That shows that in most of these cases the eviction could be prevented through a ban on no-fault evictions, which the Minister and his Government consistently refuse to implement while they claim to care about the devastation being caused by the housing crisis. The Taoiseach said again today that he is as concerned as anybody in this House about the housing crisis. I beg to differ. The Government seems more concerned about the cuckoo fund landlords lobbying to prevent tenant protections than the actual tenants being evicted. Since the lifting of the eviction ban in March 2023, homelessness has increased by 28%. The Government clearly does not see record levels of homelessness as an emergency. A total of 3,472 children were homeless in March 2023; today there are 4,603 children homeless, a 33% increase. Thousands of children have gone through the trauma of losing their home since the lifting of the eviction ban. There is the uprooting from their neighbourhoods and from their friends, bringing a few belongings with them into a strange place, into emergency accommodation. Each child will be damaged by every day they spend in emergency accommodation. Homelessness is a trauma but it is completely preventable, and the Government clearly does not see this as the emergency it is.

Many areas do not even have emergency accommodation. There are waiting lists for emergency accommodation. The Simon Communities have recently said that the Government still lacks a comprehensive plan to tackle homelessness and that one of the key areas is the tenant in situ scheme. There are over 55,000 households in receipt of the housing assistance payment. The Simon Communities' quarterly Locked Out of the Market report from December showed that just 46 properties were available to rent within the discretionary rate of the HAP scheme. Where are those 55,000 households to go to find somewhere to rent when they are issued a notice to quit? Where will they find somewhere to rent? The tenant in situ scheme offered some level of hope. It prevented a small though not insignificant number of families and individuals from becoming homeless. Where are the HAP tenants to go if they are evicted?

The changes to the tenant in situ scheme immediately plunge 60,000 households into immediate risk of homelessness, but then the Government clearly does not care. Dublin city councillors have written to council management asking them what they will do to support and implement the tenant in situ scheme, as continued. The Department of housing and the Government have introduced huge uncertainty to the scheme. We know there are tenant in situ applications that are not being processed. There are people who will be made homeless as a result of the changes to the scheme. In my constituency, in Ballymun and Finglas, 243 people went for one social home. If no homes are becoming available, where will tenants who are facing eviction from the private rental system and who are eligible for social housing go? This is really not acceptable, and the Government has to accept that it needs to properly implement the tenant in situ scheme. Where should these people go?

I also want to ask about the cost rental tenant in situ scheme, whereby those who do not qualify for social housing but qualify for cost rental could be prevented from eviction. Will the Government continue funding for that? Again, there are small numbers involved but there should be more. Will the Government continue to support the cost rental tenant in situ scheme?

What is it with the Minister and the Government's disdain for renters? They appear to be captured by the big landlords. I believe the issue is that they do not care. They do not actually care about those tenants being evicted and they do not care about the individuals and families being made homeless. As I said earlier, the evidence is there that the tenant in situ scheme is working, so why is the Government introducing any level of uncertainty into it? The Government should tell the local authorities to use the tenant in situ scheme as they need it for any household, individual or family that faces eviction. There is no lack of money. We have billions of euro in budget surplus. Here is a policy that has been proven to work. It can actually work. I argue and plead with the Minister to reverse the Government's new limitations on the tenant in situ scheme, keep it working and keep the funding going into it. It comes back to the argument that if they do not, it will show once more that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do not actually care about renters and those being made homeless.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as an tairiscint seo. I ask the Government to engage with the Opposition on housing because, frankly, the policies the former is putting forward are ensuring that people go into homelessness, and that includes families, children and hard-working individuals. They are facing homelessness and there is absolutely no reason for it. This scheme is a solution, and it is just so frustrating that we face this situation and have to argue over this. This scheme was set up to help to prevent homelessness. It is meant to give councils the ability to buy homes where landlords are selling, keeping tenants in place instead of putting them out on the street. It sounds like common sense but it is not actually working that way for the Government at the moment. Multiple families and individuals in Dublin South-Central have contacted me about their landlords wanting to sell their homes to the council through the scheme, and the landlords are willing and wanting to do it. It keeps the people who are living in those homes in their community, and I cannot stress how important that is to people. It is not just a house or an apartment; it is a home. It is where they live, where their children go to school, where they might go to work, where they socialise, where their sporting facilities are - whatever it is. It is a total upheaval for people who are being made homeless for no reason other than that this scheme is not sorted. There is just a pile of bureaucracy, delays and excuses. Even when it was working, the process was so slow and so tied up in red tape. In addition, sales are falling through because landlords are just saying that this is taking too long. People are being forced out of their homes.

I spoke today to a woman who said to me that her landlord was willing to sell the home to the council and it took over a year. Several times the landlord told her she just could not wait. Thankfully, she did and that person is now in a tenant in situ home, is absolutely delighted and can stay in her community.

These are not just statistics who are becoming homeless. They are people who are becoming homeless. They are mothers who do not know where they are going to have their children sleeping. They are people who live alone, individuals who have been living alone in a home, who are then all of a sudden going to be living alone homeless. The system just does not move fast enough. The homelessness numbers are at a record high and the crisis is only getting worse. There is then this scheme, which is a tool to help, that is just being wasted. Local authorities need to be given the required resources and direction urgently. While I note the amendment being proposed to the motion states several times that a circular will be issued for 2025, it is 19 March now and I do not know what part of 2025 that will go in for. We need to ensure those places for those people desperately in need are fast-tracked. There should be no more delays. I urge the Minister to work with the Opposition on this issue. Every time someone from the Government side stands up, he or she says the Government wants to have solutions and wants the Opposition to give proposals for things that will work. We are giving one and we ask the Minister to please do it.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I thank our colleagues in Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I have been listening to the conversation and the debate. Who is making this decision? Who is taking this scheme, a diamond in the rough of a terrible housing policy, and saying let us scrap it because it is nearly too successful?

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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It is not being scrapped.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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It is being scrapped.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Some €325 million is being made available-----

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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It is being scrapped. As it stands, it absolutely is being scrapped. If what he said makes the Minister sleep at night, that is fine. He is making this scheme so restrictive now, though, that it guarantees homelessness. It guarantees it. We will see the evidence play out. How is there an evidence-based approach to say "No" regarding the tenant in situ scheme? The Government can still call it something. It can call it whatever it likes. If one speaks to council officials and people receiving it, they will say they are concerned because what is eligible now will not be under this new scheme, creating homelessness for families who are safe and secure. I should be standing here applauding the last Government for the introduction of this policy. It was working. Is what is being done now being done because it is too expensive? Is it because it is too successful? I sincerely am trying to find out why we would decide to change this piece of the policy because it does not make any fathomable sense whatsoever.

I refer to any property now being considered. As a county councillor, I was around in the last term when a few people were thrilled to have gone through this scheme successfully . A council, however, cannot take a property without any sort of refurbishment costs being provided. It is nonsensical. The Government and the local authorities will have standards, rightly so. For this scheme to not allow for recoupable costs with any sort of refurbishment works will, in and of itself, restrict a significant proportion of units being considered for this process. A house must be used for two years as a social house for it to be eligible. Where is the sense in that? Why would it not follow the people, as opposed to the property? Who is making these decisions? It genuinely makes no sense whatsoever.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as ucht an rún seo a chur os comhair na Dála agus an deis againn a bheith páirteach sa díospóireacht seo. Chuir an Rialtas an scéim seo ar fionraí, agus tá bréag á hinsint ag an Rialtas maidir leis an scéal. Cuirfidh mé mar sin é. Táimid i dtír na mbréag arís ó thaobh cad atá ag tarlú anseo. Tá litir anseo agam ag cur in iúl dom go ndúirt an Roinn go raibh an scéim seo curtha ar fionraí roimh an Nollaig. D'ardaigh mé, cosúil le gach Teachta Dála eile, é anseo arís agus arís. D'ardaigh mé é mar cheist ar sonraíodh uain di, mar Shaincheist Thráthúil agus ar urlár na Dála, agus ní raibh mé in ann aon soiléireacht a fháil. Bhí an Taoiseach ag caint as dhá thaobh a bhéil maidir leis an scéim seo, ag rá nár cuireadh ar fionraí í agus go mbeadh scéim nua i gceist.

I am thankful to Fine Gael, no, I am sorry, to Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. It is interesting that I had a slip of the tongue in relation to Fine Gael because quite a number of Government backbenchers raised questions in relation to this issue over and over. The former Ceann Comhairle was one, such was the uncertainty regarding this scheme. The city council in Galway was informed this scheme was suspended. I raised this issue in every manner I could, including during Questions on Policy or Legislation, as a Topical Issue matter and during questions with other TDs, but absolutely no clarity was given to me concerning the scheme. I was told it was not suspended, yet the city council told me there were 16 units in the middle of a contract about which there was no certainty or about whether they were going to be lost. Some 11 of those units had sitting tenants. I have a letter here, as does every other TD, telling me the council is not answering the landlord in relation to the wish to sell the house under the tenant in situ scheme. There was no reply from the council. Another letter I have concerns a similar situation.

Let me look at the task force in Galway that has been sitting now since 2018 because the situation is so crucial there and such is the emergency. Do you know what the new chairperson of that commission told us back in November? We have had no minutes since then. We get no feeling there is urgency here, except in the words of the chairperson, who said we must massively scale up our delivery of social housing. It is acknowledged by both local authorities that the targets have not been met. It is also acknowledged that targets are not being achieved. When it comes to the tenant in situ scheme, then, on page 3 of the minutes, it is stated that in regard to the scheme, as an official from the Department advised, that it was introduced, as was outlined, in 2023 as a temporary measure and so on, and was then renewed. The minutes go on to state the Department has consistently indicated the limit to the local authorities but the figure concerned has been exceeded, and this scheme should be a scheme of last resort.

I share concerns regarding the scheme and value for money but I place the blame firmly on the shoulders of the Government for not monitoring this scheme and for not having the figures at its fingertips as to whether it is providing value for money. At the moment, it is a necessary scheme. It is like all the schemes brought in by the Government in that they have become necessary. They are, though, all pieces without an overall picture. What the Government has done is it has brought in a scheme. The officials in the council got the work ready. The Government just cut it and then told us it did not. It played absolutely silly games in relation to where the truth lay. Across every party, contributors have raised questions in this regard. How did that happen if what I said is not accurate? How were clear guidelines not given in relation to this matter or news issued of a proper review being carried out, by whom and within what length of time? In the meantime, the Government's new restrictions are appalling. This is what is going to happen. Our homeless services are at full capacity in Galway city. There are no properties available under the HAP scheme. The Simon report has told us about the situation in respect of every quarter of every year for several years now, even when it looks under the discretionary schemes. Homeless services, therefore, are at capacity, no properties are available under HAP and now the Government is doing this with a scheme. Tá sé dochreidte agus ní féidir glacadh leis. Arís, gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as ucht an deis a thabhairt dúinn soiléiriú a fháil ar a laghad. An féidir leis an Rialtas a rá liom, i dtaobh na dtithe a bhí i mbaol ó thaobh an scéim a bheith curtha ar fionraí, an bhfuil na tithe sin anois i seilbh na comhairle i nGaillimh? Tá sé ardaithe go mion minic agam agus ba mhaith liom soiléiriú.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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The proposed changes to this scheme are greatly concerning. I believe they will cause havoc. This is a scheme broadly welcomed across the House. It is one that has seemed to be working. Does it need to be improved? Everything, of course, can be improved and I would have no objections to that. However, the proposed restrictions the Government is going to put on this scheme could render it redundant. It is going to increase the risk of homelessness. There are no vacant spaces in homeless services in most counties, including the one I live in. The simple reason is the number of people losing their tenancies and finishing up in homeless accommodation. I refer to putting in place restrictions on this scheme such as a requirement for the property to be registered with the RTB. As a constituency TD, the Minister knows the reality is many rental properties are not registered and the tenant has no power to change this fact.

Another restriction is the exclusion of reasonable refurbishment costs.

This does not bear any resemblance to reality. The facts are that any local authority official will tell you - the Minister knows this as well - that homes in the private rental sector do not receive regular maintenance. There will be shortcomings in that regard. Few homes will come in without needing €10,000, €20,000 or €30,000 to be spent on them. People with a disability are supposed to be okay but they will not be because doors will have to be widened and baths will have to be taken out and a shower put in. If there is no flexibility for the local authority to do that, it will not help their case. The two-year rule - in other words, that the house needs to be within the social housing net for two years with the tenant getting a rent subsidy, housing assistance payment or rental assistance payment - will cause problems because a lot of them will not be in it for two years. The Government is making it very restrictive. It will causes problems and limit the number. In County Laois, it was used in 2023 and 2024. In 2025, a number of homes are in the process of being bought but it is all on hold because there is uncertainty about what will happen. The owners of the properties will not wait indefinitely. That is just a fact of life. I am not exaggerating anything. There are practicalities. I am not too sure who drew this up. I would like to know. They have no idea what is going on out there in the real world. I do not mean that in a condescending way; I am just saying it does not bear any resemblance to reality. We want to keep this scheme working. By all means come forward with improvements regarding value for money or whatever else. Reasonable people will support reasonable measures. It shows the shortage of supply of social and affordable housing to buy.

The mass production of homes is never talked about in this House. I took this up with four of the Minister's predecessors and the Secretary General of the Department a number of times. The main parties in this House do not seem to focus on it. We need somewhere between six and ten house types to meet the needs of different family sizes, disabled people, elderly people and single people, etc. We need to use the same plans across the State. Having to bring in an architect and start with a blank canvas in every housing scheme costs a fortune. It costs 10% to 15% extra. It also delays and slows things down. The designs are sent back and forward between the Custom House and local authority technical staff. This can go on for a period. All of that would be cut out. I am not arguing for 1930s- or 1970s-type houses but we increased housing then and in other years when the State was a lot poorer by mass producing. Does the Minister really think people in Laois care if they live in a house that looks like an affordable or social house in Limerick? I certainly would not. That is how it was done. Anybody who ever produced anything at scale did so with mass production. I ask the Minister to talk to senior officials about this and change it. We need to be able to copy and paste plans, use the same plans and reduce costs. This is an unnecessary cost in the bill for houses. It will speed up delivery. Let us use the same plans across the State to fit different house types. It is an important issue which I ask the Minister to take on board.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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I am asking the Minister to do what was done in the 1970s. I certainly will not apologise because we need social housing to be built on a massive scale. There is no other solution to end this housing crisis. I was in the Dáil over ten years ago. Housing was the huge issue then, but it seems to be so inconsequential to the Government now. I thought it was bad then but now it is unbelievable, in comparison. The Taoiseach said housing was not a central issue in the election campaign. That was his excuse for the Government basically telling lies to the population about the housing figures. Housing was the biggest issue in the election bar none.

I represent a constituency in which there is also a Fianna Fáil representative and a Fine Gael representative. We represent the same constituency yet all the housing problems seems to come my way or the way of Sinn Féin, for example. They obviously do not go to the Minister's party because otherwise the Government would care. We are snowed under with the misery of the housing crisis. In Dublin West, for example, Hansfield Educate Together national school, which my daughter attended, asked parents on Facebook if they have any rooms because they cannot get teachers for the school. A children's class wrote to me from one of the schools in Dublin 15. I assume they wrote to all the TDs about the teacher crisis due to the housing crisis. In one school campus in Dublin 15 the summer before last, four teachers left because their leases were up and they were evicted. The Government is proposing to render null and void the only shining light we had to give to anyone facing eviction because of sale of property. The tenant in situ scheme for eviction for sale of property was the only lifeline we could point people to. It is problematic because you have to get the landlord and the local authority to agree to it. What are TDs and councillors meant to say to people now who face eviction? What is the Minister's answer on that? There were shortcomings in the scheme; for example, there have been 16,531 evictions since late 2023 for sale of property yet there were only 2,500 people helped through this scheme. There should be a lot more. The other problem is intervention in the housing market which is a costly process. Houses are paid for at market rate. This is not the best way to resolve the housing crisis. It is not a substitute for building public housing but it was at least a way of saving people from being turfed out onto the street.

How many local authorities has the Minister met since he got his job to find out what land they have available and their capacity to build social and affordable housing? I would be interested to hear the answer. The Land Development Agency already said there is a potential supply of up to 67,000 houses. That does not include loads of local authority land. In Fingal County Council, of which I was a member for a few months between the local and general elections, I tabled a motion on the greater Blanchardstown area. I would love if the Minister followed this up. There is one site there called Scribblestown-Elm Green. The council said it could supply 7,000 affordable and social homes on that piece of land. That would end the waiting list in Dublin 15. The Minister should be sitting down with councils, finding out what they will do to develop those land banks and reporting to the Dáil weekly and monthly. That is the only solution, ultimately, to the housing crisis. He should be finding that sort of information out. Church Fields is another land bank which is being developed slowly. The other one has been put on the long-term strategy. It should be a priority. That is why we need a State construction company to cut through all the red tape and bureaucracy, identify public land and use workers available to prioritise building homes rather than offices and commercial buildings. That is how we will get the teachers, nurses, therapists and essential workers we need to end so many of the problems we face right now.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I forgot to congratulate the Minister and Minister of State on their appointments to their positions. I wish them well going forward. I hope we can work closely together. One of them is from my own constituency so we should be able to work closely together. I think this is the second or third time I have spoken about housing today in the Dáil. It is a huge crisis and a huge issue. It does not matter if it is a young person looking for planning permission, which seems to be blocked, or if you are trying to grow your local town or village and bring people into your community, which cannot be done because the infrastructure is wrong.

This is one of the schemes that the Government reopened under pressure but it is now failing to fund it properly. Homelessness is exploding, with 15,000 people in emergency accommodation, and yet the Government pauses a scheme that keeps families housed. The housing crisis is turning into housing chaos as more people are pushed out of their homes each year while the Government drags its feet. The tenant in situ scheme was working effectively, saving more than 2,500 households, so why shut it down? This is about priorities and the Government has got it all wrong. It can find billions for overspending but claims there are no funds for housing solutions. Landlords want certainty, not red tape as overcomplicated rules discourage them from engaging with the scheme. Approved housing bodies, which can manage social housing well, are being locked out of the scheme. The Government is also failing rural tenants, with local councils in smaller towns needing the scheme but being underfunded. We need a Minister for housing who will act and not make excuses. The Minister must take responsibility and ensure there is adequate housing funding. The solution is simple: fund it, fix it and stop playing politics. The Government needs to provide proper funding and allow local councils to act.

It is not just this problem alone, as I have been saying all day today. There are so many issues here that have not been tackled over recent years. This has led to people being very angry and frustrated. My last two phone calls, and I accept that it may be coincidental, were on planning permission. People were concerned about their planning, were worried about it and were getting negative vibes from the planners. I said earlier today that the rural planning guidelines need to be changed. The planners are only going through what is before them. They cannot give permission if the guidelines tell them they cannot give it. There is this negative vibe in relation to housing and homes for people who are desperate to get a start in life, whether in a new house or not. I do not know about Deputy Browne but Deputy O'Sullivan knows and understands the situation that is going on in Dunmanway, Shannonvale, Ballydehob, Goleen and Rosscarbery. Some of those towns and villages are waiting 27 years for their wastewater treatment plants to be upgraded so they can build new houses. The Deputy was at a meeting I attended through Zoom in Dunmanway recently on the wastewater treatment plant. Houses cannot be built there and there is no future. It may be 2030, 2035 or 2040. We will be at workshops every day of the week. I do not want to hear any more of that old palaver coming out of their mouths. The bottom line is the money is not there or is not going there. That is the problem with Dunmanway, Shannonvale, Rosscarbery, Goleen and Ballydehob. Uisce Éireann is walking away, scot free.

I have called continually at the past five meetings of the Business committee, and will do so again tomorrow morning, for time to discuss Uisce Éireann and the problems that exist with Irish Water, including the fact there is no proper delivery of services. We have to really look into this matter to determine why the funding is not being made available. Why can we not consider getting a developer to deliver the wastewater treatment plants, seeing as Uisce Éireann cannot deliver them? I would love for the Minister to say I am dead right, that we are not going to be able to do Dunmanway, Shannonvale, Ballydehob, Goleen and Rosscarbery in the next 12 months but we can put a deadline on when it is going to happen. Is it going to happen in 2030, 2040 or 2050? Good God, these people deserve to know where they are going with their towns and villages while raw sewage is pouring down into a local play park in Shannonvale. It is astonishing. It is astonishing that the EPA and Uisce Éireann are turning a blind eye and the people are left with no homes. I cannot go back to Dunmanway this weekend and tell them that maybe in 2032 or maybe in 2040 they are guaranteed to have proper infrastructure in their towns so they can develop them further.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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I congratulate Deputy O'Sullivan on his position as Minister of State. I am delighted to see a Cork man elevated. I know he has been working very hard in his constituency but he does not need to worry because Deputy Collins has taken on extra staff because the Minister of State is not in the constituency anymore. He will be looking after all the necessary needs-----

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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It is no problem at all.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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-----from Goleen all the way up, so there is no need to panic or worry. I jest. I know what a good worker the Minister of State is.

I praise the Sinn Féin organisation for tabling this motion. The tenant in situ scheme has been a great success but the changes the Government is proposing mean it is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is working very well, but since last October we have had no movement on tenants in situ in Cork city. This is affecting 40 families. Why do people want to be in the tenant in situ scheme? It is very simple. Their children are based in the community, they have sports clubs and all the necessities and supports around them. They are expected to vacate their house when their landlord is selling it. It is a case of "Off you go, abscond to somewhere else or go into homeless services".

I want to make the Minister aware of one particular couple who lost their house in 2008, through no fault of their own. They lost their house because of the mismanagement of the Fianna Fáil Administration at the time. They are now renting accommodation but were recently told they will have to vacate their property or else come to a tenant in situ arrangement. Cork City Council cannot engage because it does not know what is happening in the Department. Nobody is making a decision. A cheque has not been signed since October. We are looking at a situation where civil servants do not particularly like this scheme and they are influencing the Minister. It really is a case of Sir Humphrey in the Department and a bumbling Minister or Minister of State who is not capable of making a decision. They are not capable of realising that something works. It is something that is good. Indeed, it is one of the few things that is good coming out of the housing Department. It is one of the few things that is good and the response is to get rid of that too. We might as well be a complete failure. Absolute complete failure seems to be the rhetoric of this Government. It is simply not good enough.

The Ministers are not listening to their own elected representatives. Have they heard the people on their backbenches talking? Have they listened to them or have they been concentrating on their phones for most of the debate? Will the Minister listen to what those in his own party are saying, what backbenchers are saying and what they are telling us in the corridors? We are all telling the Minister the truth. We are telling him what is working and what is not working but he is not listening, nor does he have any interest in being in this House listening to what is being said tonight or in listening to his own TDs. It is a disgrace; a joke.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion and thank Sinn Féin for tabling it. The tenant in situ scheme was actually working quite well in Mayo until recently, but over the past year it has been paused entirely. A number of my constituents have actually agreed terms and agreed a sale deal with Mayo County Council over a year ago but are still waiting in line. They are still waiting to find out what is happening but there has been no update or correspondence and very little communication overall. Meanwhile, an eviction notice is about to be served because the landlord does not know what is happening and is now returning to the private sale option. We need clarity and we need to move on this quickly. It is more than a year now for many of my constituents who have agreed a deal and yet there is no information from Government. It is unacceptable. Changes to the scheme need to happen and we need to have clarity on it very quickly. The scheme is working and I would urge the Minister to ensure it continues into the future.

This brings me to a broader point, which is that this Government has lots of schemes. They may sound good in media interviews and so on but the detail of many of the schemes is lacking. The tenant in situ scheme has been paused now for more than a year. The affordable housing scheme has yet to deliver a house in Mayo, under this or the previous Government, over the past five to ten years. There has been no affordable housing under the scheme. We were promised ten but those units have been promised for many years and have not happened yet. The first home scheme is also not happening in the west in particular. The help to buy scheme is not happening in the west, largely due to the fact it only applies to new builds and there is so little new building happening in Mayo. Yet another scheme that is failing.

There is no serviced sites scheme either. There are multiple schemes for which the Government is responsible and yet when we look at the detail there is so little delivery in them. One scheme which is working okay is the vacant property scheme. More than 8,000 applications have been approved but only 1,100 applicants have been successful. Just over 10% of applicants who have been approved on the scheme have been successful.

In the absence of any real scheme for the people of Mayo, will the Minister consider reducing the cost of construction? In recent months I have spoken to many builders who have told me they are pricing jobs but families, couples and young people cannot afford to build. They go to builders, they get planning permission, they have tender documents and they cannot afford it. In recent years the price of timber increased by 70% between 2021 and 2022. The price of concrete increased by almost 50% between 2021 and 2024. The price of cement increased almost 60% during this time. What has the Government done to address this? It has done absolutely nothing. It took in more than €3 billion in VAT last year. It has taken in carbon tax, excise, customs and the defective concrete block levy. All of these are preventing young people in Mayo and throughout the country from building their own homes. In the absence of the Government's schemes, because they are not working, will the Minister please address the issue of costs and construction costs for young couples? The Government is taking the lion's share and it can do something, and must do something, to address this.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The tenant in situ acquisition scheme may have been a temporary measure initially but it is one that has proved absolutely necessary in protecting some of the most vulnerable in our society. It was by no means perfect but bureaucratic ineptitude at national and local level led to it being a lot less than it could have been. I have had multiple examples of small landlords with long-standing tenants who are extremely concerned about what will happen to the individuals and families who are facing homelessness as a result of the property being sold. In many cases these people have had no option but to sell because of their own financial pressures. They saw the tenant in situ scheme as a win-win but many owners who submitted their properties in good faith were hampered by concerns about funding or massive delays in the processing of applications and they had to give up. Now, Government delays in funding and changes to the scheme have added to the great uncertainty. In numerical terms it has taken many potential housing units off the market but in human terms it has caused devastation to many families. Not only are so many families needlessly facing homelessness now but as of last month in south Dublin, as has been mentioned by other Deputies with regard to their county council areas, all the homeless hubs were full up. Once these tenants have to leave, where are they going to go? It is shocking and outrageous.

We are coming into the second quarter of this year and we still do not have proper guidelines for how the revised scheme will work. We have a lot of platitudes but no certainty. With no certainty, fewer property owners are willing to take a risk, especially with no clarity on timescales or refurbishment works, or the two-year rule when a family could have been renting for more than a decade. The tenant in situ scheme is a relatively costly way to keep a roof over people's heads and we know this. In the absence of any meaningful action on the macro level it is a lifeline for so many families. The Government's motion contains many weasel phrases and passes the buck to local authorities. We simply need more funding, more certainty and a time limit on the applications process which can drag on and on, for more than nine months in some cases and sometimes up to year. In essence, the Government needs to do better. It has listened to the motion and the contributions and I hope the Minister will take note.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for their contributions. As my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, has stated, it is a clear focus of the Government to increase the supply of new build social and affordable homes. Increasing the overall housing supply is key to addressing the housing challenge and preventing, and ultimately eliminating, long-term homelessness. This being said, I would like to assert the Government's commitment to the continuation of the second-hand social housing acquisitions programme and, in particular, more focus in targeting tenant in situ acquisitions. It is important to note that tenant in situ acquisitions are part of a wider acquisitions programme for social housing, including acquisitions for older persons and persons with a disability, exits from homelessness services and buying or renewing acquisitions which tackle vacancy.

I am acutely aware of the potential situation being faced by households in receipt of social housing supports under HAP and RAS who receive no-fault notice of termination. As a Government we understand the urgency and the need to ensure these tenants are prevented from entering homelessness. We will continue to work with local authorities to address these challenges and implement policies that will make a positive difference. The Government recognises the importance of tenant in situ acquisitions as a key measure in preventing homelessness. We also recognise how these acquisitions possibly benefit vulnerable tenants who receive a no-fault notice of termination from their landlord.

Since the extension of the acquisitions programme, officials from the Department have engaged with local authorities to ensure these updated measures are communicated clearly and promptly to local authority staff. These engagements are focused on ensuring the efficient continuation of targeted acquisitions by local authorities. I want to be clear in reasserting the commitment of the Government to the acquisitions programme and I have pointed out how the actions carried out to date demonstrate this commitment very clearly.

While there is still much to do, the Sinn Féin motion and Opposition input this evening do not fairly represent the efforts and progress made to date. The motion asserts the acquisitions programme was suspended and is intentionally being restricted. As the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, highlighted at the outset, since 2020 almost 7,000 homes have been acquired. Just over 3,100 homes were acquired between 2023 and the third quarter of 2024. These numbers clearly highlight the success of the acquisitions programme as a key measure in preventing homelessness and make clear that such acquisitions were not suspended at any time. I also note that the Government has provided funding for the continuation of the programme in 2025 to ensure momentum can be maintained.

In 2025 the programme is supported by funding of €325 million, and the provision of a capital funding allocation to each local authority will promote best practice and result in greater flexibility in the response to these local needs. This flexibility will enable local authorities to decide on the most appropriate action to prevent homelessness in each case. These measures further demonstrate the Government's commitment to addressing and preventing homelessness through tenant in situ acquisitions. In addition to the funding provided, the Government aims to further improve the operation of the programme, ensuring it is fair and accessible to those most in need. The addition of eligibility criteria will provide greater focus and target our most vulnerable tenants, such as families, older persons, persons with a disability and people exiting homelessness.

The motion claims the introduction of eligibility criteria would exclude certain cohorts but I refute this claim and I reiterate that the introduction of these criteria will provide a more focused and targeted programme to benefit the most vulnerable in our society, which must be welcomed. This being said, it is important to note these criteria do not exclude any tenant who has been served with a notice to quit. It should also be noted that the first response of local authorities is to work with these tenants to assess all available options to prevent the threat of homelessness. The increased flexibility provided under the arrangements for 2025 ensures local authorities are in a position to respond to local needs and to support not only priority category acquisitions but also single persons and couples without children. The Government is committed to providing a targeted, fair and equitable programme to ensure the availability of these benefits for those most in need.

Some of the mental gymnastics from the Opposition are quite extraordinary. Sinn Féin's housing policy from November 2024 proposes reducing the tenant in situ acquisitions programme down to 800 over the coming years. Nobody from Sinn Féin highlighted this today but there is a clear intention to reduce it. I do not understand the difficulty Sinn Féin has with insisting that landlords be registered with the RTB - surely this is good policy - or with the property being up to standard. These are properties that are being let out by landlords. What is Sinn Féin's difficulty with ensuring these landlords keep these properties up to proper standards? What is Sinn Féin's problem with prioritising children, people with disabilities and older people? This is what it is objecting to in its motion.

The Labour Party went to more extraordinary lengths to try to make a point. It wants tax breaks for these landlords, even where these landlords might be operating outside of the Residential Tenancies Board. This was an extraordinary statement from the Labour Party. It is a pity its Members did not wait to hear the response but I will not go there.

In supporting the countermotion I reassert that the intended review of the second-hand acquisitions programme, which will be carried out in 2025, will aim to build on progress to date and further improve the programme by way of appropriate policymaking.

We will continue to work tirelessly to address these challenges and implement policies that will make a positive difference.

I reassert the Government's commitment to a targeted programme and to highlight that this programme is already addressing the concerns raised. The progress made to date provides evidence of the effectiveness of the second-hand acquisitions, and by implementing the improved arrangements for 2025, this Government aims to build on this success. The Government is clear in its commitment to the core principle that everybody should have access to a home. We accept there is more to do but as my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, has already said, the Government is fully dedicated to addressing the housing crisis through the necessary measures, which include the continuation of the tenant in situ acquisitions. It remains a priority for this Government to prevent homelessness and help those in emergency accommodation to exit as soon as possible. We will continue to work with the local government sector to maintain progress, and I look forward to working with everyone in this Chamber to ensure continued success.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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I wish both the Minister and Minister of State well in their new roles. I thank my colleagues in Sinn Féin for bringing this relevant and important Private Members' motion on the tenant in situ scheme to the floor of the House this evening. The tenant in situ scheme is a vital tool in the prevention of homelessness and has been a saviour to many families across the country. Since April 2023, the tenant in situ scheme alone has saved more than 2,500 households from the sickening prospect of losing a roof over their heads or being at the mercy of a system that is overwhelmed and broken due to dealing with the sheer volumes of evictions and notices of termination.

In my own county of Wexford, 52 households have benefited from this scheme since 2023-13 in the Wexford district, 14 in the Enniscorthy district, 12 in the Gorey district, 12 in the New Ross district and one in the Rosslare district. Without this scheme, those families and individuals would have ended up in hostels, in overcrowded emergency accommodation centres or granny's box room, and that is if they are lucky.

I ask that the newly proposed criteria by the Department of housing be fully re-evaluated and returned to the current rules. Under new proposals, a couple without children will be excluded. Single citizens will be excluded. A property must be at least two years in the social housing support scheme, and the housing Department is also removing the ability of councils to exceed the set targets, plus the councils will not be able to reclaim refurbishment costs. Surely these measures, to put it mildly, are downright unfair, discriminatory and restrictive in nature, disavowing a large cohort of single people and couples from a scheme that could prevent them from becoming homeless. Figures show that the highest cohort of people seeking social housing is in fact single people. To reduce any funding to local authorities and introduce restrictive access measures to the tenant in situ scheme in a time of housing emergency is bad policy, and will result in more people becoming homeless. The Department must row back and remove its new discriminatory and restrictive proposals, and increase the necessary staff to process applications in an efficient and timely manner.

Again, we see rents averaging €1,423 in my own county, and an increase in rents of 5.7% nationally year on year. I ask Deputies to note the fault lines in the Department's new proposal and to support this Sinn Féin motion.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North-West, Sinn Fein)
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The most recent homelessness figures issued in January show a significant rise in the number of people and families who are homeless. Homelessness figures have reached record levels and stand at an overall total of 15,286, of which 4,603 are children.

Over recent years, a large number of landlords have been leaving the rental sector. Estimates show that between 2021 and 2023, roughly 40% of landlords left the market. The tenant in situ scheme has operated successfully for 2,500 households since April 2023, which represents thousands of men, women and children who would otherwise have been made homeless. This is a plus for both the families, who would otherwise be homeless, and for the landlords.

A large degree of uncertainty has been created, however, and is causing unnecessary delays because of the lack of clarity on funding and the new rules being introduced, which will be more restrictive and make it more difficult for people to avail of the scheme. As a consequence, we have a large number of families living in fear of being evicted and of being made homeless, and many are forced to overstay in the rental property because the local authorities have not received the approvals to go ahead with the scheme.

In my constituency of Dublin North-West, I have a number of such cases agreed and being held up because Dublin City Council is waiting for the go-ahead from the Minister's Department. In this housing and homelessness crisis, this is just not acceptable. Families are under severe strain and stress, not knowing where they stand and with the threat of homelessness hanging over their heads. The Minister needs to act immediately to get this scheme up and running. His Department needs to actively engage with local authorities and implement this scheme as a matter of urgency.

Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Despite Government assertions that it is tackling the housing crisis and adequately fighting to end homelessness, the reality on the ground tells a far different story. In one week in January 2024, there were 172 adults accessing emergency accommodation in Louth. In the same week in 2025, that had jumped to 232 adults. That is a stark 35% increase in those needing emergency accommodation in the space of just a year.

By any definition or metric, that paints a picture of abject failure by this Government to tackle homelessness in Louth. As a former county councillor and chair of Louth County Council's housing strategic policy committee, I know the impact and real-life positives the tenant in situ scheme had for those lucky enough to be approved, and still the requests by tenants who have been served notices to quit by their landlords who want to sell their properties are coming in thick and fast, daily and weekly.

For some reason, this scheme, which has actually delivered and allowed people to stay in their homes, has been suspended since the end of last year due to the failure of Government to agree the funding and targets for 2025. Hundreds of applications have been left pending without a decision due to uncertainty and lack of funding. That delay has put people out of the homes that, in some cases, have been rented for years or even decades, and in turn causing homelessness.

This decision by Government will cost the taxpayer more in the long run, as those who will have to leave their homes will most likely end up in emergency accommodation. The Minister must provide local authorities with their capital allocations and targets for 2025 as a matter of urgency, allow them to process all outstanding applications and reopen the tenant in situ scheme, without restrictions, to new applications. This is the Minister's first big policy decision and I urge him not to oppose this motion or back the Government amendment, as the proof in what Government policy delivers is clear. That is a 35% increase in those needing emergency accommodation in my constituency in just one year. No one can stand over that.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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The tenant in situ scheme has saved many families across north Kildare from homelessness due to the housing crisis created by this Government and the almost identical Government before it. Abandoning this scheme is going to leave people in a housing limbo suddenly facing homelessness. The tenant in situ scheme has offered a lifeline to those facing emergency accommodation, sofa surfing, sleeping in their cars or, worse, sleeping rough. It is a vital homelessness prevention scheme, yet it has been up to Sinn Féin and others to pressurise this Government time and again into keeping the scheme and making sure it works. Indeed, it was the Opposition that pressured the Government into setting it up in the first place.

County Kildare is currently sixth in the State outside of Dublin for adults accessing emergency accommodation, with an 11% increase from last year. It will be more than an 11% increase next year if we get rid of the scheme. It is hard to believe this Government is serious about housing when we see homelessness figures continuously rise, the untruths told about housing targets during the previous general election, and our own Taoiseach laughing it up about the housing crisis in Ireland with a property tycoon in the Oval Office at the White House. We should not be surprised; this is the company Fianna Fáil keeps. It is the party of the Galway tent, developers and speculators. While its buddies are all profiting off a crisis that party has created, an entire generation is starting to emigrate. I have seen how my daughter's friends are starting to emigrate, and those who cannot afford it are being locked out of housing. Mo náire sibh.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The concern - and it is a genuine concern - that has motivated us in bringing forward this Private Members' motion is that the capital funding announced by the Minister's Department to date, and the new restrictive eligibility criteria, will result in fewer tenant in situ purchases this year than last year, even if the demand is the same. That is the central concern here. The total capital allocation of €325 million, as the Minister said, is across four acquisition streams. That funding, at current average acquisition prices, will deliver fewer homes this year than last year or the year before. That is simply a fact.

The restrictive criteria the Government is introducing make no sense. Reasonable refurbishment costs are a vital element for this scheme to work, and without it, many properties will go unbought. Prioritising one group of vulnerable homeless people inevitably means deprioritising and ultimately excluding another group of very vulnerable homeless people.

They are both equally as deserving of prioritisation. Currently, they receive that and that should not change.

The two-year rule makes no sense. There seems to be a suggestion that somehow, somebody somewhere is gaming the system. I am not saying the Minister is saying that, but some of the people advising him may believe that despite the fact that there is no evidence. The very rigid adherence on a notice to quit rather than the slightly more flexible approach that has been in evidence over the past period is regrettable.

The Minister says the scheme is not suspended. On the ground, that is not the truth. If I call a local authority today as a landlord, I will be told no new applications are being taken until the Minister has made his decision and the circular has issued. Hundreds of applications made last year are awaiting a final decision and cannot be processed. I do not know what definition of the word "suspended" the Government operates on, but for me, that is a suspension.

All I am asking the Minister to do is, if he is not willing to listen to us, to talk to the people on the front line. Talk to the people preventing homelessness in the statutory and voluntary sector and ask them if they think this will make the scheme better or worse. They will tell him it will make it worse. I am urging him to reconsider. Please, between now and when he signs off on the circular, do not make these changes, do not make more people homeless who otherwise would not be so. Do the right thing and scrap these proposed changes.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Cuirfear an vótáil siar go dtí an am vótála an tseachtain seo chugainn.