Mr. Graham Doyle:

I am pleased to be participating remotely this morning as Accounting Officer to further assist the committee in its examination of the 2019 appropriation account for Vote 34. I am joined remotely by a number of colleagues from the Department. Ms Áine Stapleton is assistant secretary with responsibility for the social housing delivery division. I am also joined by Mr. Paul Lemass, rather than Mr. Barry Quinlan, as indicated by the Chairman. Mr. Lemass is assistant secretary with responsibility for the housing policy, legislation and governance division. I understand that Mr. Lemass is having some technical problems this morning but hopefully he will be with us shortly. I am also joined by subject matter experts in the areas of social housing delivery and emergency accommodation, Ms Deirdre Mason, Mr. David Kelly and Mr. Eamonn Waters. As requested by the committee, I have provided some advance briefing material for the meeting and a copy of my opening statement. As this meeting is a resumption of the committee's examination of Vote 34 which took place across 25 and 26 November and as time is limited, I will focus on the areas set out in the committee’s invitation for today.

Total housing expenditure in 2019 was €2.34 billion, representing an increase of 19% on the outturn for 2018. This was comprised of current expenditure of €901 million and capital expenditure of €1.445 billion. An additional €93 million from local property tax, LPT, receipts was also used by certain local authorities to fund housing programmes. The focus of the Department’s 2019 activity in the area of housing was led by the actions set out in the six-year Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness.

Social housing delivery represents the largest proportion of expenditure under the housing programme and the schemes that the committee has asked us to focus on today are primarily current expenditure-funded delivery structures.

In order to situate these programmes properly in the overall context of expenditure on housing, it is crucial to understand why the State relies on capital and current structures for social housing. Simply put, it is about maximising the number of homes we can deliver and meeting the housing needs of all those who are reliant on the State for support. We cannot just look at the local authority housing waiting lists when considering meeting housing need. We must also look at all of those households already being supported. This means enabling local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, to manage and maintain existing tenancies and properties, upgrade and relet stock, and manage day-to-day interactions with households, including applications, differential rent and transfers. When we look at the totality of households in a housing support or in need of a housing support, the number exceeds 300,000.

The Department is responsible for providing the resources, be they financial, legal or policy frameworks, to enable local authorities, AHBs and other stakeholders to operate a social housing system that provides for all eligible households. Crucially, the State must meet these costs in a way that is aligned with domestic and EU fiscal rules.

A whole housing system such as this has component parts that exist to meet the need for immediate, mid-term and long-term supports. While we focus intensively on creating new supply, particularly new build supply, we must continue to have immediate options available to households that require them.

Turning briefly to the schemes that the committee is interested in for this meeting, we will start with the rental accommodation scheme, RAS. RAS has been an important contributor to social housing supply since its introduction on a pilot basis in 2005 and has placed responsibility on local authorities to meet the accommodation needs of people in receipt of rent supplement for 18 months or longer and who are assessed as having a long-term housing need. RAS has enabled rent supplement to return to its original objective as a short-term income support. By the end of 2019, the housing needs of more than 18,000 households were being met through RAS.

The housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme is also a form of social housing support for people who have a long-term housing need. HAP is an important part of the social housing options available across the country. At the end of 2019, more than 52,000 households were having their housing needs met under the scheme.