Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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256. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of households and the equivalent number of persons that are in receipt of rent supplement, HAP and RAS in County Kildare; the cost of rent supplement, HAP and RAS in County Kildare for 2015 and 2016; the number of households that have had their rent increased above the prescribed rent supplement; if he will provide a breakdown of one bedroom, two bedrooms, three bedrooms and so on of those households; the monetary value of those increases in 2015 and 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8284/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), which has been rolled out to local authorities on a phased basis, was commenced in the Kildare County Council administrative area on 2 November 2015.  As HAP is rolled out nationally and replaces Rent Supplement for households with a long-term housing need, the number of households transferring to the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) will decrease. In the meantime, RAS continues to be an effective and secure form of social housing support that local authorities have been utilising in order to secure additional social housing.

In relation to HAP, at the end of 2015, 32 households were being supported by HAP in the Kildare County administrative area with €8,626 in total payments to landlords made in respect of those tenancies in that year. At the end of 2016, an additional 773 households were supported by HAP in Kildare, at a provisional cost of €2.6m in payments to landlords for the full year.

In relation to RAS, at the end of 2015, 653 households were supported by RAS in Kildare County. To end December 2016, a further 69 households had been transferred to RAS in Kildare County during 2016. The final number of households supported in 2016 is being collated and will be provided on my Department’s website along with the figures for all other local authorities once available. The cost of RAS to my Department in Kildare County Council was € 6.26 m and €6.43 m in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Details on the number of persons in each household supported by any of social housing schemes funded by my Department are not held by my Department and are a matter for the local authorities concerned. Information relating to the cost of, and tenancies supported by, Rent Supplement is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection.