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

The purpose of this engagement is to hear the views of the committee members as to what they think, as a committee or individual representatives, is the best way forward based on the information in the reports. I wrote to local authority chief executives, in advance of the next housing summit, to inform them about the dual focus of the summit, one of which will be these reports. What I would like to do in advance of and during the summit is to reach joint decisions with the local authority chief executives on what to do. Other recommendations are for myself and other Departments to continue to do a body of work until we reach a policy change because some of the recommendations speak to progressing, reviewing or investigating.

HAP has been successful but some people fear it for different reasons. Some HAP tenancies have failed but tenancies in the normal private sector fail too. Social housing for homeless people fails for tenants as well. Legislation provides that one must ensure that a place meets the housing need of the person so he or she comes off the housing list. For the vast majority of people, HAP meets the housing need. However, we must ensure that local authorities use the transfer list because fewer than 1,000 people have come off the transfer list to date. I mean they have moved from HAP to a permanent social housing home. We need to increase the delivery through the transfer stream.