Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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585. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide details, in tabular form, on the local authorities which require local authority housing applicants to provide documentation from land registries outside Ireland as evidence that they do not own property, and from what year each local authority has sought this particular form of documentation. [8099/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The information requested is not available in my Department.

The assessment of households for social housing support is a matter for individual housing authorities under the provisions of the Housing (Miscellaneous) Provisions Act 2009, the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 and having regard to the particular circumstances of each case. I am precluded from becoming involved in individual cases.

Regulation 22 of the 2011 Regulations provides that an applicant household for social housing support is ineligible for social housing support if a household member owns alternative accommodation that could meet their needs, either through occupation or through the proceeds of selling that accommodation. Part 11 of the prescribed social housing application form therefore asks for information on applicants’ property ownership either in the State or abroad.

In seeking to determine the eligibility for social housing support the housing authority may seek additional documentation from applicants. It is a matter for the local authority to determine what is required in individual cases.

While my Department has not directed housing authorities to seek specific forms of documentation, it would expect that any such requests by a local authority would be appropriate having regard to the particular circumstances of the applicant.