Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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223. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if persons signing tenancy agreements under the HAP scheme will automatically be put on the council transfer list; when the HAP scheme will be rolled out fully in the four Dublin local authority areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28111/16]

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 a 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 offer HAP recipients the opportunity to apply to go on the transfer list at the point when their HAP application is approved. It is ultimately the choice of the HAP recipient to choose if they wish to be placed on a local authority’s transfer list. As of mid-September 2016, over 160 households have transferred from the HAP scheme to other forms of social housing support.

The implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is a key Government priority. The accelerated rollout of the scheme on a national basis is an important early action for completion under Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. Local authorities, including the local authorities in the Dublin Region, and my Department are working closely together in order to ensure the successful implementation of the scheme. Rebuilding Ireland commits to the roll-out of the HAP scheme in the administrative areas of Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and Fingal County Council in Q1 of 2017, subject to the necessary regulations being in place.