Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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224. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the criteria for awarding medical priority for local authority housing lists. [1935/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Decisions as to the priority to be awarded to individual households in the allocation of dwellings are a matter for the housing authority concerned, having regard to section 22 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the associated Social Housing Allocation Regulations 2011. This legislation requires all housing authorities, as a reserved function, to make an allocation scheme determining the order of priority to be accorded in the allocation of dwellings to households qualified for social housing support and to households in receipt of such support that have been approved for a transfer to another dwelling provided by a local authority or approved housing body.

Under the legislation, a housing authority may provide in its allocation scheme that it shall obtain, and have regard to, a report from a medical practitioner employed by the Health Service Executive in allocating dwellings where priority is claimed on grounds consisting of, or including, exceptional medical grounds. A housing authority may also disregard the priority provided under its allocation scheme in specified exceptional circumstances, including where a household is being allocated social housing support on exceptional medical grounds.