Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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584. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on changes relating to the HAP scheme whereby persons are now being asked to forfeit their place on local authority housing lists. [24843/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is deemed to be a social housing support under section 19 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, as amended, households in receipt of HAP are not included on the local authority waiting list for social housing support. However, HAP recipients may access other forms of social housing supports, by applying to go on the local authority transfer list. On 16 December 2014, a statutory direction was issued to all authorities involved in the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) statutory pilot, instructing them to take the necessary steps to ensure that households benefiting from HAP can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support, should they wish to do so, through the transfer option. Local authorities were also directed that HAP recipients, who apply to go on the transfer list, should get full credit for the time they spent on the waiting list and be placed on the transfer list with no less favourable terms than if they had remained on the waiting list. In practice, housing authorities inform HAP recipients in writing of their entitlement to apply to go on the transfer list when they are approved for HAP. As of 12 September 2016, 169 households have transferred from the scheme to other forms of social housing support.