Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a short-term measure in some respects but it is not necessarily a bad measure. Many people like the options that HAP gives them. They prefer to remain in the private rental sector, are happy to have the State support to be able to do that and their housing needs are being met. When one looks at the funding that is being provided this year, we have effectively doubled the budget for HAP for this year. That approximately €300 million will allow us to maintain approximately 32,000 people who are currently in HAP homes and bring approximately another 17,000 people into HAP. That is just under 50,000 people, for €300 million, who are being accommodated in perfectly good private rented accommodation. Some €300 million would not get that many homes built and we obviously would not get them tomorrow. With regard to our reliance on HAP, with Rebuilding Ireland concluding in 2021, over the course of 2020 and 2021, we will accommodate more people entering our social housing stock than we will into housing assistance payment supports in the private rental sector. Looking beyond Rebuilding Ireland to our ambition in Project Ireland 2040 to bring an additional 72,000 homes into our social housing stock through build and lease, that is how we will be able to continue to manage people moving from HAP to social housing stock that is managed by local authorities.

Our ambition does not end with the Rebuilding Ireland strategy in 2021, nor is it our ambition to maintain the current balance between social housing stock and the housing assistance payment. We intend to re-balance the position in favour of social housing stock over the course of Rebuilding Ireland and into Project Ireland 2040.