John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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1348. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the spend on the housing assistance payment scheme; the number of persons in receipt of the scheme, by county, in each of the years from 2015 to 2017 and to date in 2018, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35889/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is funded through a combination of Exchequer monies and tenant differential rents collected in respect of HAP tenancies. Budget 2018 has increased the Exchequer funding for the HAP scheme to €301 million. This will allow for the continued support of existing HAP households and also enable the additional 17,000 households targeted under Rebuilding Ireland to be supported by HAP in 2018.

In relation to the Deputy's query regarding the amount spent on, and the number of households in receipt of, the Housing Assistance Payment on an annual basis, the relevant details are set out in the following table.

At the end of Q2 2018, there were 37,751 active tenancies being supported by the HAP scheme in the 31 local authority areas. A breakdown of the number of households supported by HAP, in each local authority area from when the scheme began in 2014 to Q1 2018, is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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Limerick City and County Council provides a 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 costs via the HAP SSC.

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