Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this topic. I understand he will bring the points I am raising back to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, who cannot be here this evening.

The aspect of the housing assistance payment, HAP, I want to focus on is a serious problem that seems to have dramatically worsened in the past two or three months, namely, the delay in having a HAP application processed. This in addition to the lack of flexibility shown in cases where rents are very high and the HAP is not sufficient to cover them, meaning people have to try to source accommodation in a very limited sector. In the past few months, the delay in processing an application has become dramatically worse and now averages nine weeks. One can find a situation where a family will find a landlord who will accept the HAP. However, when they get the contracts and present the application they are told the process will take nine weeks. Several people have told me they have been told to pay the rent in the interim. Who, in his or her right mind, would say that? If people had several thousand euro in their bank account, they would not be looking for a housing assistance payment. It is absolutely mad. These people do not have money to pay rent in the interim. The delay has got dramatically worse.

Another major concern I hear expressed all the time is that when people borrow the money they do not feel secure about getting the money back because they will have demonstrated an ability to pay it. This issue is adding to the stress. Landlords are also left in limbo because they do not know, if they have accommodated somebody with HAP, that the payment will be processed. It would be enormously helpful if a letter was sent out confirming that people are approved.

I speak to a number of estate agents, and I had cause to speak to one particular letting agent, who I know is very good at sourcing accommodation and encouraging landlords to take HAP tenants. He spoke about having very good experiences and not having an issue. However, he feels he has been left with egg on face because he recommended HAP but it is taking so long to process it that landlords are coming back to him saying they are uncertain they will get paid. It is perfectly legitimate and legal for a landlord to evict somebody in that scenario. The letting agent told me that once a property is advertised in the north Kildare-west Dublin area, he expects to receive 150 or 160 emails within 24 hours, of which 70% would be from HAP tenants. The remaining 30% of applicants have the best chance of securing that accommodation if the landlord knows he or she will have to wait nine or ten weeks to have the HAP payment processed.

I have come across several cases where people who have been told to leave accommodation subsequently find other accommodation and then have to reapply for HAP. When we ring the office in Limerick we are told the reason for the delay is that a large number of additional applications have been received. Is there a large number of additional applications? Is the problem a shortage of money or a staffing issue? What is causing the problem because the situation is chaotic at the moment?

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue to which I am replying on behalf of my colleague, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy.

The housing assistance payment, HAP, is deemed to be a social housing support under the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014. As a long-term housing support, an assessment of housing need must first be completed in order for a household to qualify for HAP. The Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 provide that subject to conditions, a housing authority shall deal with such an application within a period of 12 weeks. Local authorities will prioritise housing needs assessments for those in greatest need and average waiting times are significantly shorter than the statutory maximum in many areas. Once this process is complete and the housing need is confirmed, the household is eligible for HAP.

Under the HAP scheme, eligible households source their own accommodation in the private rented sector and the tenancy agreement is between the tenant and the landlord. The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 regulates the landlord-tenant relationship in the private rented sector and sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. If a household moves into a property before their housing needs assessment has been carried out by the local authority they may not be eligible for support under the HAP scheme for the duration before a complete and valid application is submitted.

The HAP application form comes in two parts, section A to be completed by the applicant tenant and section B to be completed by the landlord or agent. An application for HAP will only be accepted by the local authority when both section A and section B are completed, signed and returned, along with the required supporting documentation. Any delay in tenants and landlords supplying this information, inaccuracies or missing information will impact on the processing time of the HAP application. The earliest date a HAP payment to the landlord will apply from is the date a complete and valid HAP application has been received by the local authority.

HAP application validation times within local authorities may vary. Once a HAP application has been received and confirmed as valid by the relevant local authority, it is entered on the system by the local authority and then submitted for processing and payment by the HAP shared service centre. Limerick City and County Council provide a highly effective transactional shared service on behalf of all HAP local authorities and manages all HAP related rental transactions for the tenant, local authority and landlord. On average, HAP applications are processed by the HAP Shared Services Centre within two working days of receipt. Any rental payment arising for a given month will then be made to a landlord on the last Wednesday of that month.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I would like the Minister of State to ring the Limerick office. What is in his reply does not match in any way the experience of the applicants. That information must be out of date. It is not fair on applicants to put them in this situation. If their applications were being processed within two days I would not be on my feet raising this issue. I would not have queues of people coming into my office in tears totally stressed out by this. This is also not fair on landlords who are being left in a precarious position. It is not fair all round.

Regarding the timelines the Minister of State mentioned, it can take up to two months, and mostly it does, to process a housing application. It can take another eight or nine weeks to process a HAP application. What is happening is potentially adding to the homeless crisis.

The way HAP is being applied is problematic. In some local authorities the uplift of the 20% for a person who is in a homeless situation is not being applied. From my experience of its application in Kildare, it has been very patchy.

The delays in HAP payments are sending the message to landlords that they should stay away from this scheme. That is not the message that needs to be delivered when we know people are already in a precarious position in terms of security of accommodation.

I ask the Minister of State to check the facts he has put on the record because they do not align with the experience of people with whom I have been dealing and the situation has dramatically disimproved during the past few months. I believe the information in the reply is wrong.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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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.