Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 262: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the amended regulations for the assessment of social housing need; if he will indicate, on a county basis, the previous levels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7251/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 provides for a new process of assessing the housing needs of households seeking social housing support. In addition, it provides for the standardisation of the approach by housing authorities to income limits. It is not possible to set out in a table the income limits that housing authorities applied up to now due to the wide variety of approaches by individual authorities, with some not applying fixed income limits and the limits of other authorities varying according to local policies and circumstances. Individual authorities also adopted different approaches to the calculation of income for the purpose of their income limits. Some authorities used gross income, while others disregarded different forms of income and some made allowances for rent paid or other outgoings. The Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, which were made in February 2011, assigned each housing authority to one of three bands of prescribed maximum income limits. Amending regulations that were made in March 2011 increased the prescribed limits by €5,000 each, as detailed in the reply to Questions Nos. 279 and 280 of 5 April 2011. In addition, the housing means policy that was issued in March under the regulations set down a common approach by housing authorities to the calculation of income for the purposes of the new limits.