€10m budget for repairs and energy upgrades for council housing stock
Meath County Council will spend just over €10m on housing maintenance repairs and energy upgrades in 2026 with €6.8m to come from its own resources and a further €3.2m expected in grants from the Department of Housing.
The council intends to spend €1.5m on energy upgrades to its council housing stock this year, including full retrofits of insulation and heating systems.
The overall housing budget for Meath includes €2.5m for ordinary maintenance, €1.4m for planned maintenance, €480,000 for preventative maintenance, €345,200 for maintenance of boilers, €310,960 for halting site maintenance, a further €40k is allocated for out of hours responses which will all come from its own resources.
A further €2.7m is to be spent on pre-let repairs. Local Authority Adaptation Works of €570,000 are also proposed with the majority to come from the Department. Asset management stock surveys are continuing with €175,000 set aside for this.
Meath County Council has a total social housing stock of 4,661.
Last year 1,282 stock condition surveys were carried out on the council's social housing which assesses their condition and assists the local authority in planning maintenance and upgrades.
Pre-let repairs on stock that becomes vacant were carried out on 114 units in 2025 with funding secured for 64 of these through the Voids Stimulous Programme 2025. So far this year 49 have been earmarked for works with works under way on 28 of these and 21 have yet to be commenced.
NAVAN
At a meeting of Navan Municipal Council last week, councillors heard plans to spend €997,302 on maintenance this year with energy upgrade works to come out of the centralised budget.
Meath County Council has 1,266 housing units in Navan and has budgeted €687,771 for ordinary maintenance, €93,762 for maintenance of boilers and €215,770 for halting site maintenance.
Works planned for Navan in 2026 include an energy retrofit programme for 23 properties in Claremont Estate, Navan, remedial drainage works in a number of properties and roof repair works in Dunloe Drive and Dunloe Close.
Cllr Alan Lawes said that if new air to water heating systems were to be installed in old houses, they would need to be fully insulated and asked if those works would go along with the installation of new heating systems.
Cllr Emer Tóibín said it was now government policy to provide heat pumps only as a method of heating and this could be an issue for people living in older houses.
Elaine Daly of the Housing Department said that the new heating systems would only be installed along with new insulation, windows and doors.
KELLS
A meeting of Kells Municipal Council heard last week that €513,927 would be spent on ordinary maintenance and €70,062 on boiler maintenance.
Planned works for 2026 include energy retrofits in three properties at Cherryhill Green and 10 properties in Magdalene Court, as well as remedial drainage works in a number of properties.
Cllr Michael Gallagher said they were now taking fireplaces out of house and replacing them with electrical systems. “After a recent storm there were people without electricity for a long, long time and if they had a small stove it would keep the house warm. We are also getting complaints from people about the cost of running the heat pumps.”
Cllr Sean Drew asked if tenants are looking for transfers but had transfers two or three times previously but had destroyed their homes, costing the taxpayers hundred of thousands, would they be considered for a further transfer.
The meeting was told that sometimes people are turning the heat pumps on and off which causes costs to rise. They are meant to be on 24 hours a day. Cllr Drew was told that if somebody wrecks a house it goes on their rent account and they cannot be considered for a transfer when they have arrears on their account.
TRIM
A meeting of Trim Municipal Council heard that while budgets like pre-let repairs and planned maintenance are centralised, a sum of €377,000 has been earmarked for ordinary maintenance in the Trim MD with €51k set aside for maintenance of boilers and €95k for halting site maintenance in the Trim MD area.
In 2025 a total of 1,394 maintenance calls were received in the Trim MD.
In Trim there are seven houses awaiting pre-let repair with works underway on three of them so far.
In a discussion that followed the presentation Cllr Joe Fox said Meath County Council was making great strides in housing and welcomed the move towards planned maintenance rather than reactive maintenance, saying it saves money in the long run.
Cllr Padraig Coffey questioned if they could speed up the turnaround of vacant properties. He was told that if not a lot of work is required the council can turn around a house in nine weeks but if there is a lot to be done it could take anything from 16-24 weeks. While they generally try to have tenants lined up for when the houses become ready, sometimes a house can be vacant for a longer period if they receive a number of refusals when the house is offered for let.
RATOATH
A meeting of the Ratoath Municipal Council heard that €357,467 will be spend on ordinary maintenance this year along with €48,732 on boiler maintenance. The Ratoath Municipal District has a local housing stock of 658 units.
There are currently two council properties undergoing energy retrofits in the district.
Cllr Nick Killian welcomed the councils spend on maintenance and also their building programme. “My biggest concern is the number of people over 55 who are in need of housing. Landlords are selling up and leaving people homeless which is putting homesless services under pressure,” he said.
ASHBOURNE
€200,013 has been allocated for housing maintenance works in the Ashbourne Municipal District this year where Meath County Council has 324 social housing units.
Of the allocation, €176,017 is for ordinary maintenance and €23,996 for boiler maintenance.
In 2025, 749 maintenance calls were attended in the district, including 265 plumbing issues, 265 general repairs, 182 heating repairs and 37 electrical works. A total of 299 properties were issued for boiler servicing, including 187 gas and oil boilers and 112 heat pumps.
Three Local Authority Adaptation Works were completed in Ashbourne in 2025, with four further projects scheduled for 2026, subject to approval.
LAYTOWN/BETTYSTOWN
The Laytown/Bettystown Municipal District has been allocated €476,574 for housing maintenance works in 2026.
With 772 social housing units, €419,399 has been set aside for ordinary maintenance and €57,175 for boiler maintenance.
A total of 1,395 maintenance calls were attended in 2025, including 436 plumbing issues, 510 general repairs, 311 heating repairs and 138 electrical works. Some 659 properties were issued for boiler servicing, including 439 gas and oil boilers and 220 heat pumps.
Under planned maintenance, 58 properties had alarms replaced and 87 had radon detectors installed. Three pre-let repairs are currently underway.
Five adaptation works were completed in Laytown-Bettystown in 2025, with 11 scheduled for 2026 subject to Department approval.