Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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2047. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of households in receipt of housing assistance payment by county. [38495/17]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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2048. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of children in each household in receipt of housing assistance payment, in tabular form. [38496/17]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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2049. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of persons that applied for the housing assistance payment in each of the years 2014 to 2016 and to date in 2017, by county. [38497/17]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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2050. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding allocated to each county for housing assistance payment in each of the years 2014 to 2016 and to date in 2017. [38498/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 2047 to 2050, inclusive, together.

The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a flexible and immediate housing support that is now available to all eligible households throughout the State. There are currently more than 26,000 households having their housing needs met via HAP and some 18,000 separate landlords and agents currently in receipt of monthly HAP payments.

A breakdown of the number of households supported by HAP in each local authority area at the end of Quarter 2 2017 is available on my Department's website at the following link: . 

In relation to the number of children in each household in receipt of HAP, my Department does not collate this data; however, a summary of the household classes supported by the HAP scheme at end of Quarter 2 2017 is set out below:

- Single/ Single Sharing - 31%

- Couple/ Couple Sharing - 4%

- Lone Parent with Children - 40%

- Couple with Children - 25%

HAP is available to any household that has been assessed as eligible for social housing support in accordance with the statutory definitions. The Summary of Social Housing Assessments 2016 publication brings together information provided by local authorities on households in their functional area qualified for social housing support whose social housing need is not being met.This report shows that 91,600 households were assessed as qualified for housing support as on 21 September 2016; the report is available at the following weblink: . 

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.

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 2014 to 2016 is as follows:

It should also be borne in mind that the HAP scheme was implemented on a statutory phased pilot basis with an initial 7 local authorities operating the scheme for four months in 2014, an additional 11 in 2015, a further 10 in 2016 and becoming a national scheme with the 3 remaining local authorities in the Dublin Region on 1 March 2017.

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.

I continue to keep the operation of the HAP scheme under review but I am currently satisfied with how the scheme is operating and I consider it to be a key vehicle for meeting housing need and fulfilling the ambitious programme committed to under Rebuilding Ireland.