Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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244. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of persons who availed of HAP by county; and the total amount paid to each county in 2016. [21818/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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There are currently over 21,000 households being supported by the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme in 31 local authority areas. The HAP scheme is funded through a combination of Exchequer monies and tenant differential rents collected in respect of HAP tenancies. The  exchequer outturn for the HAP scheme in 2016 was in excess of €57 million. The majority of this funding supported the ongoing costs of tenancies established in 2015 that continued into 2016, and the costs of the 12,075 new households supported by the scheme 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 the additional 15,000 households, targeted under Rebuilding Ireland, to be supported by HAP in 2017.

Limerick City and County Council provides a highly effective HAP transactional shared service on behalf of all local authorities. This HAP Shared Services Centre (SSC) manages all HAP related rental transactions for the tenant, local authority and landlord. Accordingly, my Department does not recoup individual local authorities in respect of HAP rental payments in their administrative areas but rather recoups all landlord cost via the HAP SSC. A breakdown of average HAP payments to landlords in each local authority area, and a breakdown of the number of households supported by HAP, including the number of Rent Supplement transfers, in each local authority area at 31 December 2016 is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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