Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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417. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the cost of the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme in County Kildare in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13127/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is funded through a combination of Exchequer monies and tenant differential rents collected in respect of HAP tenancies. At 31 December 2016, there were 16,493 households having their housing need met through the HAP scheme. The provisional Exchequer outturn for the HAP scheme in 2016 was in excess of €57 million. The majority of this funding is to support the on-going costs of tenancies established in 2015 that continued into 2016, and the costs of the 12,075 additional households supported by the scheme in 2016.

A breakdown of the cost of supporting HAP tenancies by local authority, including Kildare County Council, is being compiled and will be available on my Department's website at www.housing.gov.ie.

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.