Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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149. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if potential tenants for social housing are Garda vetted prior to being offered social housing; the normal timeframe and assessment criteria selected by the local authority, that is, if there are child protection issues, a criminal record and so on; the expiry time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17268/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The application form for social housing support prescribed by the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 requires applicants to provide details of any convictions under a number of specified statutes relating to anti-social behaviour and public order offences. Under Section 14 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997, a housing authority may refuse to allocate or defer the allocation of a dwelling to a person where the authority considers that the person is or has been engaged in anti-social behaviour or that an allocation to that person would not be in the interest of good estate management.

Section 15 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 provides that local authorities may for the purposes of their functions under the Housing Acts 1966 to 2009, request and obtain information from another housing authority or a specified person, in relation to the occupants or prospective occupants of, or applicants for, local authority housing, or any other person it considers may be engaged in anti-social behaviour. A "specified person" in this instance includes a member of An Garda Síochána.

When applying for social housing support, a household is required to complete the declaration contained in the prescribed application form confirming, inter alia, that it authorises the housing authority to make whatever enquiries it considers necessary to verify details of an application.

The assessment of households for social housing support, and the allocation of that support to qualified households is a matter for individual housing authorities in accordance with the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and associated regulations. Decisions on whether to seek information from An Garda Síochána or other bodies for the assessment and allocation of social housing support, and the type of information sought, is a matter for individual housing authorities. As Minister, I am precluded by the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) 2009 Act from intervening in relation to the procedures followed, or decisions made, by housing authorities in the assessment of households, the allocation of particular dwellings and the provision of social housing supports.