Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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614. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he is aware that there are long delays in processing HAP applications in Sligo County Council due to staff shortages; if he will allocate additional resources to Sligo County Council on the same basis as the recent allocation of funding for general road operatives; if he is aware that persons are currently being made homeless in County Sligo due to these delays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25567/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Each Chief Executive of a local authority is responsible for staffing and organisation arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authorities for which he or she is responsible. My Department works closely with all local authorities and all have been invited to submit staffing sanction requests to facilitate the delivery of housing services. Each staffing sanction request is examined, on a case-by-case basis having due regard to the continued delivery of key services in the context of staffing and budgetary constraints.

While additional staffing resources have been made available to some local authorities operating HAP where required, the primary administrative support provided is the central transactional shared service delivered by Limerick City and County Council to all local authorities operating HAP. This administrative structure created under the HAP scheme has meant that local authorities have been able to provide a significant additional housing support, while allowing their housing staff to focus on meeting social housing need through other schemes, such as the RAS which also allows eligible households to source their own accommodation.

To date in 2016, 134 households have been supported by HAP in the administrative area of Sligo County Council, with an average of 4 tenancies being set up per week in 2016. My Department will continue to monitor the implementation of the HAP scheme by Sligo County Council.