Concerns over tenant-in-situ scheme highlighted by Louth TD

Concerns about the delay in the tenant-in-situ scheme and the tighter criteria the government is proposing for the scheme were highlighted last week by Louth Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú, for whom housing was top of the agenda.

In questions to the Minister for Housing, James Browne, the Dundalk TD said the tenant in situ scheme, which provides government funding to local authorities to buy homes where people, waiting on the social housing list, are renting, had been “successful in helping to prevent homelessness”.

Deputy Ó Murchú said there is an urgency now for the government to reactivate the scheme and to ensure that local authorities know how much funding they will have. He said Louth County Council “made a large number of purchases that saved an awful lot of people from dreadful circumstances”, but the scheme had stalled.

The Sinn Féin TD said Louth County Council needed to have flexibility in terms of what kind of houses they can purchase. He said: “While I accept they need to be up to a certain specification, there needs to be flexibility. That needs to be built into the system.

“I can think of one young woman in a house in a local authority housing estate that should be bought even from an estate management point of view. It would be a win all round, including for her, for that particular estate and so on.” And he highlighted how there are concerns about proposed tighter criteria for the scheme.

Deputy O Murchú added: “I am specifically asking for some flexibility where local authorities have for the past while been almost only looking at brand-new purchases, or close to that, because they were afraid of getting caught, for want of a better term, on the hook from the point of view of maintenance”.

In response, Minister Browne said: “I can assure the Deputies that this is an absolute priority for me. It is not ideal that it was not resolved before the general election. The funding is now in place. I will be acting with absolute speed to get this circular out.”