Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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306. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of properties under the housing assistance payment scheme that have become available in Dublin 15 by month in 2016 to date in tabular form. [20620/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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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. It is now available to all qualified households in 19 local authority areas with over 11,000 households supported since the scheme commenced. At this point HAP is only available to all qualifying households in one of the four Dublin local authorities, i.e. South Dublin County Council. The full roll-out of the scheme to all remaining local authorities, including the remaining Dublin local authorities, is currently being planned. To ensure the successful delivery of HAP in the capital, a specific purpose HAP Implementation Dublin Working-Group has being established to plan and manage the roll-out which is scheduled for early 2017. The Homelessness Pilot of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme has been operational since February 2015 across the four housing authorities in the Dublin Region, including Fingal County Council, and is being implemented through the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE). The focus of the pilot scheme is to transition qualified households from emergency accommodation into private rented tenancies.

While eligible households may source accommodation for themselves, a dedicated placement team, the Dublin Place-Finder Service, has also been established to engage directly with property-owners and support qualified households to find suitable tenancies and to ensure that any additional supports that may be needed are put in place. A publicity campaign is in place on an on-going basis in order to raise the profile of the scheme and to attract landlords to the initiative.

There are currently more than 300 households being supported by the Homeless HAP pilot across the four Dublin local authority areas, 29 of which have tenancies in the administrative area of Fingal County Council.