Micheál Martin: Officials ‘will engage’ on tenant-in-situ scheme

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has indicated a willingness to revisit funding for the tenant-in-situ scheme, saying local authorities’ budgets for acquiring second-hand properties could be increased by year’s end, “as happened last year”.

Mr Martin said the Department of Housing was engaging with Cork City Council to get “the full picture” around the council’s decision to halt its implementation of the tenant-in-situ scheme.

The tenant-in-situ scheme enables local authorities to buy a rental property if the landlord is selling up, allowing the tenants to remain in place and continue renting.

Two weeks ago, Cork City Council said Government funding was “insufficient to adequately cover current commitments from 2024 into 2025” and the council’s acquisitions programme was “now ceased”.

This came after the Department of Housing confirmed that Cork city would receive a capital funding allocation of €20m in 2025.

Last year, the council acquired 135 homes, including 79 tenant-in-situ acquisitions. A further 33 homes were at the sale agreed stage at the end of the year.

A special meeting of Cork City Council is planned for this evening to discuss the issue.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr Martin said Government had not cut funding to the tenant-in-situ scheme but rather had allocated funding anticipating “a somewhat similar number” of acquisitions this year as last year.

“Now, the city council is saying they raced ahead and got some more done last year, which will fall due this year, so the officials in the Department of Housing are engaging with the officials in City Hall to ascertain the full picture,” he said.

Mr Martin noted that tenant-in-situ was only one of a number of schemes under the second-hand acquisitions programme.

“Last year, there was a budget for about 1,500 [nationally]; this year it’s in and around 1,200, 1,300 at the moment, that can expand by the end of the year, as happened last year,” he said.

“The scheme was refined somewhat to target it at those who are most vulnerable to homelessness, to take over houses where someone, if the house isn’t bought out, could end up in a homeless situation.

“The officials will engage, because the levels of allocations to councils has grown exponentially under so many headings, but then the pressures are growing too, population is growing, I acknowledge that,” he said.