Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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567. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if pre-2011 RAS tenants can be precluded from consideration for social housing where household income has changed. [24717/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Housing Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2009 gives legislative recognition to rental accommodation availability agreements as a form of social housing support. Consequently, since 1 April 2011, RAS tenants are now considered to be in receipt of social housing support and should not generally remain on housing waiting lists for new applicants for social housing. In recognition that RAS tenants may have had reasonable expectations in regard to retaining access to traditional local authority rented accommodation, guidance issued by the Housing Agency in 2011 recommended that there should be a special transfer pathway for pre - 2011 RAS tenants to other forms of social housing support. The arrangement effectively allows these households to be designated as a ‘transfer’ applicant and to maintain their position for allocation as they had on the main waiting list.

My Department has recently issued guidance to all local authorities on the treatment of pre - 2011 RAS tenants in the context of the 2016 Summary of Social Housing Assessments. This guidance notifies authorities that there is no need to review the qualification of such households, including on income grounds, as they are already in receipt of social housing support.