Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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221. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the extra staffing that has been put in place to administer the forthcoming introduction of the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme; the number, and the locations; the amount that has been allocated for this; the new information and communications technology systems that have been put in place to administer the scheme; and the amount that has been spent on same to date [8700/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a key Government priority and a major pillar of the Social Housing Strategy 2020, which was published in November 2014. To this end an ambitious target has been set for the scheme for 2015, with 8,400 households to have their housing needs met though HAP by the end of the year. €23.2 m has been made available for the scheme in 2015.

The delivery of the HAP Programme is being overseen by an Oversight Group co-chaired by my Department and the Department of Social Protection, which includes senior management from local authorities. A detailed business process design exercise for HAP was undertaken in 2013, which included a preliminary examination of the organisational structure required, including change management issues that may arise.

The statutory pilot phase of HAP commenced in September 2014 and is now in effect in the following 7 local authority areas: Cork, Louth, Kilkenny, South Dublin and Monaghan County Councils, Waterford City and County Council , and Limerick City and County Council. Significant numbers of households are moving on to the scheme on a weekly basis and this rate of transfer continues to increase each week. Over 900 households are in receipt of HAP at present across these 7 local authority areas. Dublin City Council is also part of the statutory HAP pilot with a specific focus on accommodating homeless households, as provided for in the Action Plan to Address Homelessness. Dublin City Council is implementing the HAP pilot for homeless households in the Dublin region on behalf of all 4 Dublin local authorities.

In order to provide efficiencies and to test processes in the statutory pilot phase of the scheme, Limerick City and County Council is providing a transactional shared service to the participating local authorities. Generally, existing staff resources and financial management systems are being utilised to implement HAP in these local authorities. Training on the implementation of the scheme has been provided to the local authorities involved by Limerick City and County Council.

To date, the Department has recouped €17,500 to Limerick City and County Council in respect of costs incurred in the utilisation of and amendments to a Customer Relationship Management system, which is used to store landlord and tenant information and manage the implementation of HAP.

To take account of the increasing workload being undertaken by Limerick City and County Council in providing the transactional services to the relevant local authorities, my Department has provided sanction to the Council for the public recruitment of 15 additional temporary staff at Clerical Officer level. This recruitment is taking place on a phased basis as the number of HAP recipients increase. Sanction has also been provided for two Acting Grade V (Staff Officer – Team Leader) posts for an initial 12 month period. Resource requirements for the other local authorities involved in the statutory pilot phase of the scheme are being kept under on-going review by my Department , and by the Oversight Group,in the context of the continued roll-out of the programme.