merrion street

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O Brien TD has today [Monday 16th November] announced an increase in the maximum funding available under the Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS) from the current limit of €40,000 to a maximum of €60,000.

Minister O’Brien informed both the High Level Homelessness Taskforce and the Housing Delivery Group of the increase at this morning’s meetings and said it was an important change which would stimulate greater social housing stock.

The Repair and Leasing Scheme was introduced to assist in bringing vacant properties back into use for social housing purposes. This significant increase in funding underlines the Government’s commitment to bringing vacant properties back into use across the country.

It will also have additional benefits in terms of employment and investment in local areas as projects under the Repair and Leasing Scheme tend to be small scale, with refurbishment works being carried out by small local construction companies and tradespeople.

Commenting Minister O’Brien said,

This funding increase which has been called for by many of our local authorities and AHBs will mean that property owners who cannot afford or access funding to bring their vacant stock up to standard and back into use will be able to do so for use as social housing.

In 2020, funding of €10.7m has been made available for the scheme nationwide with €11m allocated into 2021. It has an added benefit of increasing investment and employment into the local construction and retail sectors while also providing for the regeneration of local communities,

he concluded.