Emergency Cork City Council meeting held on tenant-in-situ scheme issue 

Cork City Council is to write to the minister for housing and the Taoiseach requesting funding to acquire properties, after an emergency meeting regarding the tenant-in-situ scheme yesterday evening.

A report by the council’s chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan, stated that city council was initially granted funds for 110 home acquisitions last year, then was told by the Department of Housing last June they could work to their allocation plus 50% and costs could be recouped.

The council engaged with the department and obtained approvals for a further eight additional homes above this 165 allocation, Ms O’Sullivan said.

They carried forward 38 homes to 2025, but the costs to acquire these projects and to recoup 2024 transactions will use up the funds allocated for 2025, and leave them at a €1.69m estimated deficit.

For its 2025 Acquisition Programme, the council had engaged in discussions on the acquisition of an additional 33 properties, but there will be no funding left for these, Ms O’Sullivan said.

Cork City Council, she said, continues to engage with the department on the matter of its funding allocation for acquisitions for 2025, adding: “This engagement includes clarification required on the funding of the residual committed acquisitions from the 2024 programme.”

Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins thanked his council colleagues, saying: “We put politics aside and worked together — we don’t always agree, but we absolutely agree on this.”

Issue "over who said what"

Councillors across the political scale were largely in agreement — though there was disagreement about whether the scheme was truly cancelled.

Independent Ireland councillor Noel O’Flynn said that cutting the funding was “a moral failure”, while Labour councillor Peter Horgan said that the numbers of people who need this scheme were only going to rise.

Fine Gael councillor Des Cahill said he believed, despite being a member of a Government party “that the Government got this wrong”, calling it “reprehensible” that the scheme had been stopped.

Fianna Fáil councillor Tony Fitzgerald said his party’s priority was to increase the supply of new build social housing, and that the tenant-in-situ scheme was “originally intended as a short-term measure”, but insisted that his party were “working day and night” to resolve the issue.

His party colleague, councillor Seán Martin, said “there’s an issue over who said what” between council and the Government, but said that “to say the scheme is gone is nonsense, it’s not factual”.

Fellow Fianna Fáil councillor Colm Kelleher said the issue was an “accounting anomaly”, but the party agreed that outstanding commitments should be honoured.

A motion calling on the Government to provide funding to allow the council to honour these commitments and to allow the scheme to function as previously was unanimously approved.

Some people directly affected by the scheme were in attendance, with Annette Hawkins saying that after the meeting: “We’re still in the same position, we have a week to be out of our house.”

She said that the council has said they will get in contact with her landlord about extending her eviction notice while they wait for clarity, with her daughter Katelynn adding: “Otherwise we’ll be getting in contact with homeless services.”

Another affected person, Jason Cashman, said: “I worry about how long my landlord is going to wait.”