Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will pass the Deputy's comments, concerns and frustrations on to the Minister. I accept she would not be on her feet raising this issue today if everything was being processed within two days and the process was running as smoothly as my presentation in response to issues she raised would suggest. I will pass the Deputy's concerns on to the Minister. That is my job here. That is how politics works and the reason we have this House is to bring information on what is happening on the ground back into the system and to the attention of the officials and civil servants to make sure they are aware of it.

If there are delays at the validation stage within a local authority, payment to the landlord will be backdated to the date on which a complete and valid application form was provided by the eligible household. The landlord is therefore not penalised for any delay. The HAP scheme has been structured in a way that most protects Exchequer funding by ensuring payment issues only on valid and complete applications. For this reason rent is paid in arrears and ensures that money is only paid in respect of time that the property has been occupied by the tenant. This practice also avoids the situation where the local authority has to attempt to recover money from the landlord and simplifies the administration of the scheme.

With approximately 72,000 households on our waiting lists, the combination of more than 50,000 social housing homes and 88,000 HAP and rental accommodation scheme, RAS, supports, which will be funded by the Government out to 2021, means that both long-term and flexible options will be available to those on our social housing waiting lists.

At the end of quarter 2 2019, there were more than 48,000 households in receipt of HAP support and more than 28,000 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme. HAP is working.

In addition to funding the HAP shared services centre, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government provides financial support directly to local authorities to assist them with the administrative costs of new HAP applications, and it is in the interests of the local authority, the tenant and the landlord that applications are validated and processed in a timely manner to ensure early incorporation on to the regular monthly payment system.

I again thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I am sure the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and his Department will continue to keep the operation of the HAP scheme under review. I will convey her concerns directly to the Minister.

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