Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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33. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of households and the total number of persons on the housing waiting list for Galway City and County Councils; the number on HAP; if their names have been taken off the waiting list and put on a special transfer list; the number on RAS; if their names have been taken off the waiting list; if so, the list they are now on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9025/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Details on the number of households on waiting lists in each housing authority area are provided in the statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments.  The most recent figures available are the results of the 2016 Summary which are available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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The 2016 results show that as at 21 September 2016, there were 3,322 and 2,087 households respectively recorded as qualified for social housing support with Galway City and Galway County Councils.

In the Galway City Council administrative area at end 201 5,420 households were supported by RAS. At end 2016, 336 households were supported by HAP, which was introduced to the local authority on 1 February of that year, and a further 48 had been transferred to RAS.

In the Galway County Council administrative area at end 2015, seven households were being supported by HAP, which was introduced to the area on 20 November of that year, with a further 391 households supported by RAS. At end 2016, an additional 381 households had been supported by the HAP scheme and a further 22had been transferred to RAS.

On 16 December 2014, a statutory direction was issued to all authorities involved in the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, instructing them to take the necessary steps to ensure that households benefitting from HAP can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support, should they wish to do so, through a transfer option. Local authorities were also directed that HAP recipients, who apply to go on the transfer list, should get full credit for the time they spent on the waiting list and be placed on the transfer list with no less favourable terms than if they had remained on the waiting list. Similarly, a special transfer pathway has been provided for some RAS tenants to other forms of social housing support.

The practical operation of transfer lists is a matter for each local authority to manage, on the basis of their own scheme of letting priorities. The setting of such schemes is reserved function of the local authority and as such is a matter for the elected members. My Department does not gather or hold any information on households seeking a transfer to an alternative social housing support whether they are currently having their housing needs met through HAP, RAS and or any other form of social housing support. It is ultimately up to the household to choose if they wish to be placed on a local authority’s transfer list, and I understand that the majority of HAP households do avail of this option. At the end of December 2016, 240 households across the country have transferred from the HAP scheme to other forms of social housing support.