Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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16. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way in which he envisages reaching the housing assistance payment, HAP, targets in Rebuilding Ireland in view of current rent prices and supply problems in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45301/17]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is envisaged that there will be 17,000 HAP tenancies next year. How on earth is the Government going to achieve that given the extent of rents, in particular in parts of Dublin? They are far in excess of HAP limits. I do not see how the Government can possibly deliver in the areas where they are needed most the HAP tenancies the Minister imagines will be delivered next year.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The housing assistance payment, or HAP, offers opportunity to families already living in the private rental sector and who require long-term assistance with their housing needs by allowing them to increase their income without the risk of losing their housing support, unlike rent supplement. Therefore, it offers families more security and allows them to plan for their future.  HAP will continue to be a flexible support available to assist people with their long-term housing needs immediately as their need arises. There are currently more than 28,500 households and 20,000 landlords and agents taking part in the scheme. On average, more than 350 households have been set up on HAP each week in 2017.

I am aware that concerns have been expressed regarding the availability of sufficient rental properties to achieve the level of ambition set out for HAP. From experience, about one third of new households receiving HAP for the first time have transferred from rent supplement in an existing tenancy; another third are households who were not in receipt of rent supplement and so are receiving financial support for the first time and are in an existing tenancy; and the last third are households who are also receiving financial support for the first time, but are moving into a new tenancy with the help of HAP support. This means that two thirds of HAP tenants are being supported within existing tenancies, while one third, or roughly 100 per week, are using HAP to secure new accommodation that they are finding on  the rental market. Budget 2018 has increased Exchequer funding for the HAP scheme by €149 million to €301 million to meet the continuing costs of existing households and the costs of meeting the additional 17,000 households, to which the Deputy referred, targeted under Rebuilding Ireland, to be supported by HAP in 2018. I am satisfied with the operation and resourcing of HAP and I am confident that we can meet the targets set under Rebuilding Ireland.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is all very well setting out the theory and the plan. We know we have not met almost any target set by this Government over recent years.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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We met the targets this year and last year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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They are not being met in my area.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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They were not that ambitious.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I want the Minister to answer me, not just give me the script. While I am sure other Members will say the same about other parts of Dublin, in south Dublin in particular there is no chance of securing significant numbers of HAP tenancies. There are 14 properties available to rent in total for everybody in the Dún Laoghaire area, the cheapest of which, a one-bed, is €1,400. The HAP limit for that is €900. The cheapest two-bed is €1,600, while the HAP limit is €1,275. The cheapest three-bed is €2,200, while the HAP limit is €1,300. The cheapest four-bed is €2,400, while the HAP limit is just €1,375. That is the reason people in our area are now in homeless accommodation or sleeping in cars.

HAP is simply not viable. What are we supposed to do where HAP is just not going to happen in certain areas? Side by side with the above, private development is taking place of houses which are completely unaffordable to people on the list. If we could get them for social and affordable housing, we might solve the problem. However, there is no effort being made to get a higher proportion of Part V provision or of social and affordable housing in the construction that is taking place. We just get the fantasy of HAP.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The housing assistance payment plan has worked to date and we have been able to secure accommodation for people who need our help using this support. Where we have encountered difficulties, we have put in place things like the HAP place-finder service which we are now rolling out nationally.

That will help with issues such as the deposit and the first month's rent, which is important. I also introduced homeless HAP, which allows for greater flexibility to both keep people in their accommodation and prevent them from falling into emergency accommodation and services and to help those who have left accommodation to return to secure accommodation through these supports. The changes we have made in rolling out HAP have helped us to make sure the scheme is working and we will continue to make changes as needed to make sure we get the delivery from the scheme that we require. Approximately 20,000 landlords and agents are working with us to help more families and individuals into HAP accommodation. What the Deputy reads on daft.ieor on the rental market is not a true reflection of what might be available in HAP supports.

The RPZs are the high demand areas and that will help us with massive inflation in rental costs over the period of the zones. The trend in the first two quarters of data for this year tells us that rent inflation this year versus last year will be approximately half. That will help us again to meet our HAP targets going into next year if that trend continues for the final two quarters of this year and into next year.

New homes are being built. One dataset, which is not complete, shows an exceptional increase in September in comparison to the previous month based on year-on-year projections. Those new homes will come on line.

The Minister of State referred to the repair and lease scheme. It has not worked to date in the way we wanted it to and changes are coming shortly. I will announce those even though Deputy Cowen said he does not want to hear any more announcements.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Only good announcements.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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It is important that we let people know exactly how the scheme will work. We will try to make sure the scheme works in conjunction with Deputy Cowen's legislation. Those leases will be for social housing, which will come on stream next year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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If HAP works in certain areas, happy days. I am delighted with anything that keeps people out of homeless accommodation. However, in south Dublin, accommodation is not available under HAP and I would like the Minister to address this. I would like Government Members to get this into their heads. There is quite a lot of expensive accommodation. Ten times more rental accommodation is available for in excess of €3,000 a month than for under €1,500 a month. There is lots of accommodation that nobody can afford but no accommodation that people on HAP can afford. That problem will be exacerbated because of the proportion of private housing being built for the market currently. Even when the houses come on stream, they will still be unaffordable because they will be priced above the HAP limits and, therefore, even the medium-term and long-term plan will not address the problem in south Dublin. Will the Minister get that into his head and then we can start to move towards solutions?

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I am not sure what data the Deputy is basing his figures on. If he is basing it on the figure someone is putting up on a website as the rent they would like to get, that does not mean it will be the rent he or she will get.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Is the Minister kidding me? People are fighting each other.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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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.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister will have welts on his hands from turning sods.