My first question at Novemeber’s MD meeting,  ‘Can the council outline its protocol for signing tenancy agreements with tenants including a breakdown of how many tenancy agreements have been signed in the municipal district since 2014; the number of tenancies signed by each councillor; and the criteria for selecting councillors to sign tenancy agreements?’

Here is the report issued by: Ms S Scully, Administrative Officer, Housing Section: Tenancy agreements are signed by the tenant being allocated to a social house, a member of staff in the Allocation Section and the Senior Executive Officer in the Housing Department. As the allocation of a social house is an executive function, an Authorised Officer’s Order is signed by the Senior Executive Officer appointing the tenant to the property.
It is a requirement that the council seal is affixed to each tenancy agreement, the council seal must be witnessed by a nominated member.
At the first annual meeting of the county council which was held on the 6 June 2014 all 40 councillors were appointed to witness the affixing of the council’s seal, thereby allowing for any elected member to witness the affixing of the seal.
Data in relation to number of the councillors who witnessed the affixing of the council seal to tenant agreements is not retained in an easily retrievable format however below is the number of local authority social house allocations in the period from 2014-2018 in the Kildare Newbridge Municipal District.
2014 – 25
2015 – 36
2016 – 37
2017 – 57
2018 to date 76