Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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132. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of former rental accommodation scheme and rent supplement persons who have transferred across to the housing assistance payment, HAP, while remaining in the same property in real terms and as a percentage of the total number of live HAP tenancies. [28807/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Some 13,600 households are currently having their housing needs met through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme. Some 4,800 (36%) of all households supported by the scheme have transferred from Rent Supplement. Due to the phased nature of the scheme’s roll out, the 19 local authorities providing HAP are at different stages of implementation. Accordingly, the number of households who have transferred from Rent Supplement varies from more than 70% of all households supported in established HAP local authority areas, to less than 20% in newer HAP authorities.

My Department does not hold any data regarding the number of Rent Supplement households who have transferred to the HAP scheme while remaining in the same property. However, it can be assumed that the vast majority of households, who transfer from the Rent Supplement scheme to HAP, will transfer in their current property.

It was not envisaged in designing the HAP scheme that tenants of other forms of Social Housing like RAS would regularly transfer to the HAP scheme. However, such transfers have occurred in a small number of exceptional circumstances.