Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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313. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the criteria for replacing substandard, damaged or overcrowded mobile homes for members of the Traveller community; and the resources available for local authorities, either from their own resources or through his Department, to allow replacements to take place. [4495/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In accordance with the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, housing authorities have statutory responsibility for the assessment of the accommodation needs of Travellers and the preparation, adoption and implementation of multi-annual Traveller Accommodation Programmes (TAPs) in their areas. My Department’s role is to ensure that there are adequate structures and supports in place to assist the authorities in providing such accommodation, including a national framework of policy, legislation and funding. As part of the capital funding supports provided by my Department, funding of 50% is provided to housing authorities for the purchase of ‘Emergency Replacement Mobiles’. An emergency in this respect is an unanticipated event, such as flood/storm/fire damage, that would render a caravan/mobile uninhabitable or dangerous to live in.  Non-emergency replacements i.e. where mobiles falls into disrepair over time due to lack of maintenance, are expected to be anticipated and preventative action taken by the owner/Local Authority. These replacements are funded from the Local Authorities’ own resources.

A scheme of loans and grants for the purchase of caravans by Travellers was established by Circular TAU1/2000, underpinned by Section 25 of the 1998 Traveller Accommodation Act. This provision gives local authorities discretionary powers to extend loans to Traveller families to aid the purchase of caravans with a grant element funded by my Department of 10% of the purchase price of the caravan up to a maximum of €640.

My Department has commissioned the Housing Agency to conduct a full review of the operation of this scheme in each Local Authority since its introduction. The review commenced in November 2016 and a report with recommendations is expected to be submitted to my Department in Q2, 2017.