The purchase of new turnkey properties for social housing is set to be phased out under plans going before the Cabinet this morning.
Minister for Housing James Browne will later today announce that funding for these acquisitions by local authorities and approved housing bodies will end late next year.
This policy change is aiming to get local authorities to take a more hands-on approach to building social housing.
Housing bodies and the Land Development Agency will have a major role too.
Minister Browne has been critical of what he sees as a reliance by councils on buying homes that would otherwise be available on the private market.
The minister also believes these purchases prevent councils and housing bodies from influencing the homes’ design.
The new financing rules will not kick in immediately though, and December next year will mark the final funding deadline for turnkey properties.
Cabinet to be updated on Stack apology
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan will update the Cabinet on the Government apology over failings in the investigation into the murder of Brian Stack by the IRA in 1983.
Mr Stack was chief prison officer at Portlaoise Prison during the 1980s and was the sole prison officer in the State killed by violence related to the Troubles.
He was shot in the neck in March 1983 after attending a boxing tournament at the National Stadium in Dublin.
He survived the shooting but was left paralysed, and he succumbed to his injuries on 29 September 1984, aged 49 years old.
To date no one has been made liable for his death.
The Provisional IRA admitted responsibility in 2013.
The formal apology to the Stack family is part of Government commitments to address the legacy of the Troubles and the work of reconciliation.
Virtual Record Treasury on the agenda
Mr Martin and Minister for Higher Education James Lawless will bring a memo to Cabinet outlining the work of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is an all-island and international research programme at Trinity College Dublin.
It was launched in 2022 to mark the centenary of the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland at the Four Courts during the Civil War.
The project provides a digital reconstruction of the records which span 750 years of Irish history from 1172–1922.
To date, more than 500,000 individual records have been recovered, and over 150,000 missing names have been identified from lost 19th century census documents.
The project will receive €625,000 a year in funding until 2030 from the Department of Further and Higher Education.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary will also update the Cabinet on the first disability work and skills week.
The programme running this week comprises of 30 events across 17 counties, including job fairs and events focused on disability employment, training and inclusion.
A media campaign will also be launched in November to increase awareness among employers.
