Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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26. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the inadequacies with the new housing assistance payment scheme will be addressed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38908/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (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 and avail of full-time work and retain their housing support, with an adjustment in their differential rent.

HAP has been rolled out on a statutory phased basis since September 2014 and became a national scheme on 1 March 2017 when the nationwide rollout was completed. The phased nature of the HAP roll-out has allowed for significant learning, with new HAP authorities benefitting from the experience of those authorities where the scheme has been previously operational.

At the end of Quarter 2 2018, over 37,750 tenancies were being supported by the HAP scheme, including over 9,000 additional households in 2018. There are now 21,000 separate landlords and agents currently in receipt of monthly HAP payments.

As HAP is a social housing support and consequently households are not eligible to remain on the main housing waiting list, Ministerial directions have issued to ensure that, should they so choose, HAP recipients can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support through a transfer list.

In addition, guidelines on inter-authority movement were introduced in 2017, to allow for local authorities to facilitate movement of HAP households in cases where a tenant, currently on a local authority waiting list, wishes to access rented accommodation with HAP support in another local authority area, subject to conditions.

In relation to specific HAP supports available to homeless households, the Homeless HAP Place Finder Service operating in the Dublin local authorities, and in Cork City Council, is a targeted support for homeless households who are finding it difficult to secure HAP tenancies. The Place Finder Service has been successfully utilised by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) across the Dublin local authorities since February 2015, with more than 3,000 households being supported by the Homeless HAP scheme at end Q2 2018. A similar service began operating in Cork City in 2017.

In order to further assist homeless households in exiting emergency accommodation the Homeless HAP Place Finder Service is now available to each of the 31 local authorities, with the options to pay deposits and advance rental payments for any households in emergency homeless accommodation, in order to secure accommodation via the HAP Scheme.

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