Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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125. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government when a statutory instrument will be signed outlining the details of rents acceptable under the housing assistance programme for County Laois and other counties which are scheduled to come into the scheme at the beginning of December 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39064/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme became operational on a statutory basis in nine further local authority areas, including Laois County Council, on 1 December 2016, meeting the Government’s commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government and Rebuilding Ireland. This brings to 28 the number of local authorities in which the HAP scheme is operational. The statutory instruments concerned, the Housing Assistance Payment (Section 50) (No.2) Regulations 2016 and the Housing Assistance Payment (Amendment) (No.4) Regulations 2016, which provide for the commencement of the HAP scheme and the related rent limits in these additional local authority areas, are available on the Irish Statute Book website at . The prescribed rent limits for Cavan, Kerry, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon, Westmeath and Wexford County Councils have be en introduced at the same limits as those currently prescribed in these areas under the Rent Supplement scheme,which were reviewed in July of this year.

Where necessary to secure suitable accommodation for a household that is qualified for social housing support that cannot find accommodation within the maximum rent limits, HAP local authorities, including those commencing HAP on 1 December 2016, have the discretion to exceed those maximum HAP rent limits prescribed for their administrative area by up to 20%, where they determine it is justified.