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

Let them pay the excessive rents then. That will free up more stock for people on social housing supports to get them into those other tenancies and that is what we will do. Where the Deputy has had individual problems with people trying to access accommodation through social housing supports, the Department has worked with him to get them help and get them into accommodation. That is what is the HAP place finder is there for. It is working and that is why we are expanding it outside Dublin, which I announced at the housing summit, to help people into accommodation. As we have needed to make changes to the scheme, as we did during the year, including the roll-out of the place finder service outside Dublin and the introduction of homeless HAP, we have done so to make sure we can rely on the private rented sector until we get more homes built. If the Deputy looks at the progress under Rebuilding Ireland until 2021, in the final years our reliance on HAP will be less than our reliance on direct builds, acquisitions and long-term leasing. We are rebalancing this in favour of direct State intervention and supports for social housing tenants but until we get there, we will rely more on HAP.

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