Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 876: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his Department conducts any analysis of local authority housing waiting lists; if his attention has been drawn to the longest length of time an individual or family have been placed on such a list; and if his Department has any mechanism with which to intervene should people be on such lists for excessive periods of time. [19573/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department co-ordinates a statutory assessment of housing need every three years to determine the number of households in need of housing. The latest triennial statutory assessment of housing need took place in March 2005 and I anticipate publishing the results in September this year.

This assessment is the most comprehensive to date, requiring local authorities to collect data on all households on the waiting lists. This will assist the Department in determining future housing policy. The relative priority of households on the local authority waiting lists is determined in accordance with the authorities' schemes of letting priorities, the making of which is a function reserved to the elected members. It is the case that some applicants for local authority housing are on waiting lists for longer periods on the basis that their housing need has a relative lower priority compared with the needs of households who have been allocated housing.

The Government has responded actively to this increased level of social housing need and by expanding social and affordable housing output. New multi-annual action plans have been prepared by local authorities for the provision of social and affordable housing over the period 2004-2008. These are designed to assist local authorities in identifying priority needs over the coming years and providing a coherent and co-ordinated response across all housing services, including delivery of housing by the voluntary and co-operative housing sector.