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

I welcome the fact that the Deputy recognises that the HAP is working. Of course it can be improved. Not every Deputy in this House recognises the considerable support the HAP is giving to people who are at risk of homelessness or coming out of emergency accommodation. Tens of thousands of people throughout the country have been supported. Some individuals, for ideological reasons, refuse to recognise that. Therefore, I welcome the Deputy's comments.

Let me address the three specific points the Deputy raised. On the matter of when someone can access the deposit and the first month's rent, we should consider it. I want the Deputy to engage on that. I will tell my officials to engage with him to determine what is going wrong. We do not want, for administrative reasons, to be putting people into distress when they should not be in distress.

On the Deputy's second point, on the gap and letters of comfort, we should examine this also. We are talking about taxpayers' money so we have to ensure appropriate checks and balances are in place. I do not want to be taking discretion from local authorities. Since they are at the front line of the services and at the coalface, they might have a better understanding of what they are dealing with themselves. Of course we can examine it, however.

With regard to the third point, on the Department potentially buying homes or allowing the local authority to buy a home with a tenant in HAP and which might be sold, the difficulty concerns value for money and cost. It may not represent value for money for the local authority to purchase the home. That is a call it has to make. It is based on the costs of the time, its own building programme, other acquisition programmes it has, prevailing market rates and everything else. I appreciate the Deputy's highlighting of these issues. We can engage positively on them through my Department over the coming days and through the meetings the Deputy is having.

I will give the Deputy the official report being prepared for the Oireachtas joint committee tomorrow. Let me give the Deputy a couple of figures on Kildare. The total number of active HAP tenancies is 1,667, 355 of which were set up in 2018. That is roughly 14 per week. Therefore, HAP is helping people in the Deputy's county, which is great. We want it to help more. The average rent being paid in Kildare by the local authority to the landlord is €916, which is above the national average. Of course, Kildare is very close to where many people want to live and work.

The Deputy also raised the use of discretion. About 42.6% of people getting HAP, or almost half, are getting the discretionary payment. They are getting some uplift above the HAP rate. With regard to the amount of uplift, they are getting an average of 14.1%. The Deputy, when talking about the gap, should note that even those who are coming into the system do not need the full 20%. Most of them are in this category. Therefore, there is still plenty of flexibility and plenty of headroom in the 20%, notwithstanding the point the Deputy raised about letters of comfort and the additional payments. We can consider these issues. The HAP is working. Anything we can do to make it work better, I will absolutely welcome.

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