Ms Ann-Marie O'Reilly:

I will address landlords' reluctance to accept HAP. I thank Senator Boyhan for his comments. He referred to landlords possibly not wanting to be tied up in a tenancy. There is a misunderstanding among landlords that they are expected to take on a HAP tenant for a minimum of two years. That is not the case. The tenant is expected to stay in a tenancy for a minimum of two years before looking for somewhere else or moving. This is possibly to reduce the administrative burden on the HAP office. If within six, eight, nine or 15 months, that landlord decides to end a tenancy because he or she is selling the property or his or her daughter is moving in, he or she can. There is no obligation on him or her so there is a misconception out there.

As Mr. McCafferty said, there are other reasons. I will check the figures I am providing to members of the committee. When we rang landlords and agents and made them aware that they were breaching the equality regulation, many of them then accepted HAP so clearly those obstacles are not that much of an obstacle. There is simply a reluctance or refusal or possibly a misunderstanding of what HAP is.