Written answers

Tuesday, 14 February 2017

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Housing Assistance Payments Expenditure

Photo of John LahartJohn Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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266. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the cost of the HAP in the Dublin region in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7427/17]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is a key Government priority and the accelerated roll-out of the scheme on a national basis is an important early action for completion in the Government’s Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, Rebuilding Ireland.

HAP is now available to all qualified households in 28 local authority areas, including South Dublin County Council where the scheme has been operating since 2015, with over 18,000 households currently being supported by the scheme. The final roll-out of HAP will be completed with the introduction of the scheme to Dublin City Council, Fingal and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council areas from 1 March, 2017.

The Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) is also managing a HAP Homeless Pilot for the four Dublin local authorities. The Homeless Pilot of the HAP scheme has been operational since February 2015. The focus of this pilot remains the transitioning of qualified households from emergency accommodation, including hotels, into private rented tenancies. To qualify for HAP under the homeless pilot scheme, a household must generally be accepted as homeless within the meaning of section 2 of the Housing Act 1988 by one of the four Dublin local authorities. The Homeless HAP support has also been used to prevent households from entering homelessness and homeless services.

While eligible homeless households may source accommodation for themselves, a dedicated placement team, the Dublin Place-Finder Service, has also been established to engage directly with property-owners and support qualified households to find suitable tenancies and to ensure that any additional supports that may be needed are put in place. This is a particularly important service for households currently residing in emergency accommodation in the Dublin region. The costs of supporting these households and of the Dublin Place-Finder Service are funded through several funding streams across my Department, the Department of Social Protection and Dublin City Council.

The HAP scheme is funded through a combination of Exchequer moneys and tenant differential rents collected in respect of HAP tenancies. The provisional Exchequer outturn for the HAP scheme in 2016 was in excess of €57 million. This funding supported both the ongoing costs of tenancies established in 2015 that continued into 2016, and the costs of the 12,075 additional households supported by the scheme nationally in 2016. Some €14 million of these costs related to tenancies established in the four Dublin local authority areas. 1,791 of these additional tenancies were established in the four Dublin local authority areas in 2016. Budget 2017 has increased the Exchequer funding for the HAP scheme to €152.7 million in order to meet the continuing costs of existing HAP households and the costs of supporting an additional 15,000 households to be supported by HAP in 2017.

My Department continues to keep the operation of the HAP scheme under review. I am very satisfied with how the HAP scheme is operating and I consider it to be a key vehicle for meeting housing need and fulfilling the ambitious programme under Rebuilding Ireland.

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