Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 465: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the way he will deal with the local authority housing waiting lists, which in some cases contain families on the list for ten years or more; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21163/08]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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A statutory assessment of housing need is carried out every three years by all housing authorities. The last assessment took place in 2005 and indicated that there were 43,684 households on local authority housing waiting lists. Detailed information on this assessment is available on my Department's website at www.environ.ie. This information on housing need, broken down by housing authority, has been a major consideration in the allocation of exchequer resources for the national social housing investment programme. This year alone, my Department has allocated a record €1 billion to support construction and acquisitions projects across the country. Local authorities are currently carrying out the 2008 statutory housing needs assessment, the results of which will be published in due course.

At present, the placement of applicants on housing waiting lists and the subsequent allocation of social housing units is a matter for each housing authority in accordance with its scheme of letting priorities. However, under the social housing reform agenda, as set out in the Government's Housing Policy Statement, Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities, there is a commitment to the reform of housing allocation policy. Proposals for a new allocation policy have been developed by my Department, in consultation with the County and City Managers' Association, and have been discussed and endorsed by the Housing Forum. The aims of these policy reforms are to improve consistency and transparency in decision making, to provide a better fit between needs and resources and to respond, as far as possible, to the expressed preferences of individual households. The necessary legislative support will be included in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which is currently being drafted.