Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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581. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of new applications approved for social housing in the first six months of 2015. [42798/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The assessment of households for social housing purposes is a matter for individual local authorities in accordance with the relevant legislative provisions and, in particular, the 2011 Social Housing Assessment Regulations.

My Department does not hold details of ongoing changes to individual housing authority social housing waiting lists. The numbers assessed as being eligible for and in need of social housing by individual local authorities at any single point in time is subject to on-going fluctuation due to households being allocated housing and new households applying for housing support. For example, given the decrease in the unemployment rate there may well be people who while still appearing on local authority lists, may have secured employment or whose circumstances may have otherwise changed in the meantime, rendering them no longer eligible for or in need of social housing.

To accurately measure the number of qualified households on the waiting lists in individual local authorities the households must be subject to a comprehensive review. The last such review was carried out in 2013 and the 2013 Summary of Social Housing Needs Assessmentresults are available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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The Social Housing Strategy 2020includes a commitment to undertake social housing assessments on an annual basis from 2016 onwards.