Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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138. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the Housing Assistance Payment will be implemented in County Laois; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32349/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The first phase of the statutory pilot for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme commenced in September 2014 and has been introduced incrementally to 13 local authority areas to date - Limerick City and County Council; Waterford City and County Council; Cork, Louth, Kilkenny, South Dublin, Monaghan, Donegal, Offaly, Carlow, Clare, Tipperary County Councils; and Cork City Council.

Dublin City Council is also implementing the HAP pilot scheme for homeless households in the Dublin region on behalf of all four Dublin local authorities.

To date, there are almost 4,000 households supported by HAP across these local authority areas. While consideration is currently being given to the sequencing of a further cohort of local authorities to commence HAP in the coming months, the scheme is not expected to commence in County Laois until next year.