Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

A briefing on HAP was sent to us in advance. Given that this is such a significant part of the Government's social housing strategy, how concerned is the Minister about the rate of rent being paid in local authority areas? When I was reading through the briefing, I noticed that the top rents under HAP are paid in Fingal and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown where the average monthly payment by local authorities under the scheme is €1,292. Obviously, the other Dublin authorities are not far behind. The State is paying €1,292 to private landlords to house social housing tenants. That does not surprise me given how acute the housing crisis is, in particular in those locations. Has the Minister looked at the figures from housing academics showing that if the State built houses, it would save billions over the course of 30 years? If one built a home rather than to continue with HAP, the figures speak for themselves. The taxpayer is paying €1,292 into the pockets of private landlords when people could be in public housing and paying a differential rent, as I know they still are under HAP, but the taxpayer would not be subsidising the profits of a private landlord.

The Government's data says that in the third quarter of 2017, 20% of the total households supported by HAP were benefiting from the additional flexibility provided to local authorities to exceed the maximum rent limits. Can the Minister see how unsustainable this strategy is in a context where no housing is available?

This is just going to continue to escalate. I also want to point out that while 31,700 households are being supported by the scheme, including an additional almost 18,000 last year, 9,300 are transfers from rent supplement. They are not actually additional new homes being provided for people.