Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe it is a case of either-or and HAP works for many people. It allows them to live in private rented accommodation, often - almost always, in fact - in a private housing estate or private apartment block. I know from my experience in my own constituency that many people living with a HAP tenancy or with rent supplement in a private housing estate or a private housing development, when offered social housing, decide not to take it because they would prefer to stay where they are as their children are in the local school, they have connections to the area and they want to stay in the housing they are in at that time. Many people make this decision because it works for them to stay in private rented accommodation on occasion. It also helps to bring about integrated communities. We do not particularly want to go back to the era of huge social housing estates which generate or become a focus for social problems. We want integrated developments as much as possible. It is our intention to reduce our reliance on rent supplement initially and HAP as we build more social housing. There will be a €25 million funded affordability scheme for public lands, and the Minister, Deputy Murphy, will produce the information on this as soon as he possibly can with new income limits.

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