Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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112. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will extend the order of his predecessor, which expired in April 2016, to the four Dublin local authorities that half of all housing units that become available to them to house social housing applicants be made available to those on the various priority lists, including homeless priority [12449/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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A Ministerial Direction, which required key local authorities to prioritise homeless and other vulnerable households in the allocation of tenancies under their control, issued in January 2015. Under this Direction, housing authorities in the Dublin Region were required to allocate at least 50% of tenancies to homeless and other vulnerable households, while the authorities in counties Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford were required to allocate at least 30%. The Direction applied for a 6-month period, to July 2015, and was renewed in August 2015 for a further 6-month period, which expired on 31 January 2016. A further renewal issued on 1 February 2016 for a 3-month period, which expired on 30 April 2016.At the time of the renewal in February, my Department requested the Housing Agency to conduct a review of the operation of the Direction; the purpose of the review was to provide an impartial assessment of the Direction’s operation in order to inform consideration as to whether to continue the Direction beyond 30 April 201 6. The Housing Agency reported to my Department on 22 April 2016 with a comprehensive analysis of the operation of the Direction. This review concluded that, while the Direction was effective in increasing allocations to homeless and other vulnerable groups, this was primarily achieved by the return to productive use of approximately 2,700 void local authority units over the period of the Direction. The now much reduced availability of void local authority units and overall housing supply deficiencies would not allow for any further significant allocations. The review, inter alia, also concluded that the prioritised allocation of social housing to homeless and other vulnerable households came at a cost to other households on the social housing waiting lists. It therefore recommended that the Direction should lapse upon its final operational date of 30 April 2016. Based on the analysis and conclusions drawn in the Housing Agency’s report, it is not proposed to put a further Direction in place.