Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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234. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of family units that are recipients of the rent allowance within each local authority area and county by location within that authority area or county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4899/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The rent supplement scheme plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme currently supporting approximately 47,100 tenants for which the Government has provided €253 million for in 2017. A breakdown of rent supplement recipients by county is provided in the attached tabular statement, this information is not maintained by local authority area or family unit.

As the Deputy will be aware, the implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a key Government priority and a major pillar of the Social Housing Strategy 2020 and the Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness – Rebuilding Irelandhas committed to an accelerated target of 15,000 HAP tenancies during 2017. Under HAP, responsibility for the provision of rental assistance to those with a long-term housing need transfers from my Department to local authorities, under the auspices of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.

From 1st December 2016, the HAP scheme is now operational in 28 of the 31 local authority areas. It is expected that HAP will be fully rolled out to the remaining Dublin administrative areas from 1st March 2017. Rent supplement will continue to be paid to households who are already in the private rented sector but who, generally because of a loss of income through unemployment, require a short term income support to pay their rent.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Table 1: Rent Supplement Recipients by County as at end January 2017