Dublin City Council’s Tenant-In-Situ scheme has had its budget cut by €22 million, which puts 126 families at risk of slipping into homelessness.
The cut follows similar cuts made to the same scheme on Fingal County Council.
2025’s budget was initially set at nearly €120 million, but is now at around the €95 million mark.
In July, the Northside People reported that Fingal County Council has run out of money for their own tenant-in-situ scheme following a lapse in funding from the government.
Fingal County Council was given a budget of €20 million for the 2025 calendar year, a sum which has already been spent by the council.
The Department of Housing has indicated there are no further plans to grant more funding to Fingal County Council, which puts 60 families at risk of homelessness.
Following on from this, Dublin City Council has additionally confirmed that it has not processed any tenant-in-situ scheme applications so far in 2025 owing to funding restraints.
Since succeeding Darragh O’Brien as Minister for Housing in January, Fianna Fáil’s James Browne has undertaken an aggressive campaign against local authorities with regards to funding and overruling decisions made by democratically elected councillors.
Minister Browne’s hostility to Dublin City Council has united both government and opposition politicians alike, with Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan chief among Browne’s critics.
Criticising the latest round of cuts, Doolan said, “this cut will affect the council’s ability to acquire housing for households with disability, older persons requiring urgent housing and the Buy and Renew Scheme. It is a shortsighted cut with long-term negative effects.”
“The Tenant-In-Situ scheme was a very effective homeless prevention tool. It allowed local authorities to buy homes from landlords who were carrying out no-fault evictions. Last year alone, 350 households were prevented from becoming homeless.”
The latest round of homeless figures shows that 11,421 people are now availing of homeless services in Dublin, with 3,666 of that figure being children.
“This number is sure to spiral without the Tenant In Situ scheme in place,” Doolan warned.
He asserted,“this government is no longer just not working with us – they are now actively working against Dublin City Council. Minister Browne is not part of the solution, he has become a significant part of the problem.”
Earlier this year, local Sinn Féin councillor Micheál Mac Donncha told a meeting of Dublin City Council, “it is quite obvious that key top civil servants and key ministers never wanted this scheme in the first place.”
“The tenant-in-situ scheme was pioneered here in Dublin; it was a great success and it saved hundreds of families from homelessness,” the Donaghmede councillor said.
“There is a lack of certainty and a lack of clarity; councillors don’t know where we stand, and now they (government departments) want to choke it to death with needless restrictions.”
Social Democrats TD and housing spokesperson Rory Hearne has accused the Minister of “cooking the books” on the government’s delivery of affordable housing.
Hearne pointed to Q1 figures, published by the Department of Housing, which included grants to refurbish vacant homes under the First Home scheme.
Hearne noted that the scheme itself has not been drawn up yet.
“The government is now presenting figures in which nearly 50% of its affordable-purchase home delivery are actually grants that have been allocated after people have already bought homes,” he noted.
The Dublin North-West TD said, “damningly, the figures also reveal that the number of purchases under the tenant in situ scheme has collapsed, from 34 in Q1 2024 to just 15 in Q1 this year.”
“This was the only scheme that was keeping individuals and families out of homelessness, and its effective wind-down by the government is shameful,” he said.
The Soc Dems TD said that the figures are a symptom of continued government failure in the housing sector, and how the government’s attempts to supersede local authorities are not working.
“In the first three months of this year, just 10 cost-rental homes were delivered by local authorities – and just 113 in total,” he noted.
“This government’s record on housing continues to be one of abject failure. No attempts to massage figures, or cook the books, can hide that.”
In 2023, local Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe called for the tenant-in-situ scheme to be extended, saying that at a time of record corporation tax receipts, it made sense for the government to invest in schemes that keep people out of homelessness.
Speaking in 2023, the Fianna Fáil TD said, “now is the time for its expansion to allow the state to make an offer to buy any home that is being rented through HAP or RAS. In the long term, this will be more cost-effective as the state is currently spending close to €1 billion per annum on HAP, Rent Supplement and RAS.”
“This measure will build up local authority housing stock at a time when the state has a budget surplus,” he stated.
However, there is a clear divide even within Fianna Fáil of how the housing crisis should be tackled.
Minister Browne’s policy of cutting funding to local authorities and putting more trust in investors and developers to deliver housing appears to be a mirror copy of Fine Gael’s ill-fated policy when Eoghan Murphy held the Minister for Housing brief between 2016 and 2020.
For his part, Browne has been adamant that the government taking a more hands-off approach to housing and letting the free market do its thing and “cutting red tape” for developers is the answer to get Dublin, and Ireland as a whole, out of the housing crisis.
April 2023 saw the government controversially lift its ban on no-fault evictions, now a major contributing factor to homeless figures reaching record highs time and time again.
In the month before the no-fault eviction ban was lifted in March 2023, there were a total of 8775 people availing of homeless services in Dublin; the most recent figures now sit at 11,421.
In March 2023, 2638 children were in homeless services in Dublin; the most recent set of figures puts that figure at 3666.
The lifting of the no-fault eviction ban, coupled with cuts to local government services such as the tenant-in-situ scheme, has contributed to homeless figures rising in the capital.
Independent Senator Aubrey McCarthy said the latest round of homeless figures are “shocking and unacceptable.”
“This crisis is not just about housing. It is about the future of our children, families, and communities. Now, we are facing a whole generation missing out on having a home. We need a whole-of-government and society approach to ensure immediate action is taken.”