Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

There are a number of social housing options available to households who cannot meet their own accommodation needs, in particular, social rented accommodation provided by local authorities, by voluntary and co-operative housing bodies or under the rental accommodation scheme, RAS.

A statutory assessment of housing need is undertaken by local authorities on a triennial basis. The most recent assessment of need for social housing was undertaken by local authorities in March 2005. The results of that assessment indicated that there were 43,684 households in need of housing from local authorities. More comprehensive data in relation to the 2005 assessment were published in the Annual Bulleting of Housing Statistics, a copy of which is available on my Department's website.

My Department does not have separate figures for the number of applicants for voluntary or community housing. However, some 75% of householders to be accommodated by this sector are taken from local authority waiting lists. The rental accommodation scheme caters for the accommodation needs of households in receipt of rent supplement who have long-term housing need. The target group for RAS is the number of households on rent supplement for more than 18 months. The target figure for the end of 2006 is 31,959 households. There is, however, a significant overlap between households in receipt of rent supplement and those on local authority waiting lists. In the 2005 assessments, 2,399 households were categorised as being homeless, 4,112 households were considered to be living in overcrowded conditions and 1,725 households were considered to be living in accommodation that was unfit or unsuitable. Some 13,778 households on local authority waiting lists were in receipt of rent supplement according to the 2005 assessment.

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