Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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27. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will support and make efforts towards extending the tenancy protection service to benefit homeless persons or persons at risk of homelessness on a nationwide level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29944/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As provided for in Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Threshold tenancy protection service, which currently operates in the Dublin region, the mid-East, Cork and Galway, will be extended on a national basis by the end of this year. Also, a national awareness campaign will be rolled out in early-2017 targeted at families and individuals worried about, or at risk of losing their homes.

In the interim, the Department of Social Protection continues to operate discretion on a case-by-case basis under its National Tenancy Sustainment Framework providing uplifts to the rate of rent supplement payable, were necessary, to protect tenants from the risk of homelessness. In the region of 9,000 such uplifts have been provided by that Department’s Community Welfare Service to date.

Furthermore, the increased limits under Rent Supplement and the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), introduced by this Government from 1 July 2017, will contribute towards supporting the tenancies of the existing approximately 65,000 recipients of Rent Supplement and HAP.