Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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297. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to address the issue of single persons on the housing list for many years with no immediate prospect of receiving a council house; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13280/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The allocation of social housing support to qualified households is a matter for the local authority concerned, in accordance with its allocation scheme made in accordance with section 22 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and associated Regulations. This legislation requires all local authorities, as a reserved function, to make an allocation scheme determining the order of priority to be accorded in the allocation of dwellings to households qualified for social housing support, the allocation of which would, in the opinion of the authority, meet the accommodation needs and requirements of the households. Under the 2009 Act, a household is defined as a person living alone, or two or more persons, who in the opinion of the local authority concerned, have a reasonable requirement to live together.

As such, it is a matter for each local authority to decide on the type of support to be allocated to individual households. As Minister, I am precluded by the 2009 Act from intervening in relation to the procedures followed, or decisions made, by local authorities in the allocation of particular dwellings.

In addition to traditional local authority housing, social housing support is also provided through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme. Under HAP, local authorities will make a monthly payment to a landlord, subject to terms and conditions including rent limits, on a HAP tenant’s behalf. In return, the HAP tenant pays a weekly contribution towards the rent to the local authority. This ‘rent contribution’ is based on the household income. It is calculated in the same way as the rent paid by a tenant of a local authority owned property.

HAP provides fast, flexible housing support to households in an area of their choice. Individuals with a housing need who in the past were reluctant to avail of full time work as they would lose their Rent Supplement support, can now move to HAP, avail of full-time work and retain their housing support, with an adjustment in their differential rent. There are currently more than 34,000 households having their housing needs met via HAP.

Under Rebuilding Ireland, I have made it clear to local authorities that the delivery of social housing supports must be focussed on and consistent with housing need as measured by the now annual Summary of Social Housing Assessment (SSHA) process. Given that the largest percentage of households in need of support are now single person households, this clearly means that the provision of one and two-bedroom dwellings has to be increased in many locations in the coming periods. My Department is working actively with local authorities to increase these types of dwellings and the recently published guidelines for apartments will also help in this regard.

The implementation of Rebuilding Ireland is well underway and significant progress is being made. This was evident in the Social Housing Output indicative figures published in January 2018, showing that nearly 26,000 households had their social housing need met in 2017.

It should be noted that the targets set under Rebuilding Ireland were carefully set against the reality of deliverables. Of the overall target of meeting the needs of 137,000 households by 2021, just under 45,000 households have had their social housing need met by the end of year 2 of the Plan, some 33% of those targeted. More details can be accessed through the Social Housing Delivery 2017 Report(January 2018), which is available on my Department's website at link:

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