Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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148. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of tenancies in RAS, HAP and any long term leasing programme; the annual cost to the State arising from these schemes and the number of tenancies who have transferred directly into HAP from rent supplement since the scheme was introduced. [35404/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department operates three current expenditure funded schemes in which units are sourced from the private rental sector for social housing use. These are the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP), formerly the Social Housing Leasing Initiative which was initiated in 2009; the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) initiated in 2005; and the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) Scheme which was established in 2014. SHCEP supports the delivery of social housing by recouping to local authorities the cost of long-term lease agreements that are entered into with Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) or private property owners and developers. Properties made available under SHCEP are used to accommodate households from local authority waiting lists. Leased properties are allocated to tenants, in accordance with the relevant local authority's allocation scheme.

The table sets out the annual expenditure on the SHCEP since its inception in 2009 to the end of September 2016. The annual Exchequer provision for the Programme funds the full year cost of the ongoing contractual commitments of leases and contracts, and the cost of new contracted units that become operational under the Programme during the year. €57 million was provided in my Department’s Estimate for the Programme in 2016, and €84 million will be available in 2017. Expenditure in 2015 included a self-funding element of €7.933 million which was funded by local authorities from built up RAS reserves. At the end of Q4 2015, there were 7,099 social housing units operational under the Programme, and in the 9 months to end Q3 2016, an additional 638 new units had become operational.

The following table sets out the annual expenditure on RAS since its inception in 2005 to the end of September 2016. The annual Exchequer provision for the scheme covers recoupments made to local authorities in respect of the contracted rents due to landlords, and deposits on newly acquired accommodation. €135 million was provided in my Department’s Estimate for the scheme in 2016, and €134 million in 2017.Expenditure in 2015 and 2016 included a self-funding element of €14.85 million and €13.4 million, respectively, which was funded from built up RAS reserves. At the end of Q4 2015, there were 20,834 tenancies supported under the scheme, and in the 9 months to end Q3 2016, an additional 930 new transfers had been completed.

The following table sets out the costs of the HAP scheme to my Department, which includes the cost of landlord payments and local authority administration, from its inception to the end of September 2016. €47.7 million was provided in my Department’s Estimate for the scheme in 2016, and €153 million will be available in 2017. At the end of Q4 2015, there were 5,853 households being supported under the scheme, and in the 9 months to end Q3 2016, an additional 8,727 new HAP tenancies had been set up, of which 2,960 had transferred from the Rent Supplement scheme. In total, as at the end of Q3 2016, some 5,059 households had transferred from the Rent Supplement scheme to HAP since the scheme was introduced.