Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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15. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his Department has analysed the data on the pilot operation of the housing assistance payment scheme, with a view to introducing the scheme to other local authorities areas such as those in counties Galway and Mayo; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28997/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Further to the enactment of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 on 28 July 2014, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) has been rolled out to all categories of households in 13 local authority areas on a pilot basis. Dublin City Council is also implementing a HAP pilot for homeless households in the Dublin region on behalf of the 4 Dublin local authorities. There are now over 2, 6 00 households in receipt of HAP across the local authority areas taking part in the statutory pilot.

During the legislation's passage through the Oireachtas in July 2014 an undertaking was given that a progress report on the first phase of the HAP pilot would be prepared for the relevant Oireachtas Committee. In that regard, a report was submitted to the Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht at the end of April 2015, and an information session for Oireachtas members and their staff was held on 23 June 2015. Based on the findings of the report, the second phase of the HAP statutory pilot has recently commenced with the HAP scheme becoming operational in Donegal County Council on 25 May 2015, in Offaly County Council on 15 June 2015 and in Carlow, Clare and Tipperary County Councils and Cork City Council from 29 June 2015.

Consideration is currently being given to the sequencing of a further cohort of local authorities to commence HAP on an incremental basis this year. I can confirm that my Department is in contact with the local authorities in Galway and Mayo with a view to commencing the HAP scheme in these administrative areas later this year.