Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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672. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the research contained in Roma in Ireland: a needs assessment (details supplied) regarding the poor quality of the Roma community's housing; the action he will take following the publication of this research; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3461/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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My Department is responsible for the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation which is designed to address the accommodation needs of indigenous Irish Travellers under the 1998 Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act. This Act provides a legislative framework to meet the needs of indigenous Irish Travellers. Other minority communities, such as Roma, are not covered by the 1998 Act. While there is no separate funding stream for Roma as there is for Travellers, members of the Roma community may be accommodated under general Social Housing.

The qualification criteria for social housing support are set down in section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, and the Social Housing Assessment Regulations made under the 2009 Act. These criteria are applied by housing authorities in assessing individual households for support. Applicants for social housing support are assessed in relation to income, residency and current and alternative accommodation. It is open to any person or household to apply to a housing authority for a social housing assessment for the purposes of qualifying for social housing support.

Social housing applicants who are not Irish or UK nationals must meet additional criteria in order to satisfy the residency requirement for social housing support. EEA nationals must demonstrate a record of employment in the State in order to be assessed. Non-EEA nationals who have been granted refugee, programme refugee or subsidiary protection status may be assessed for social housing support.

Households that qualify for social housing support on assessment are entered onto the housing authority’s waiting list and are considered for the allocation of suitable tenancies in accordance with the authority’s allocation scheme. The citizenship of members of qualified households is not an issue in the allocation of local authority housing.